Vengeance
by VoltEagle
Summary: My name is Marshall Wolfe. I am a son, a brother, and a significant person to one girl. Hurt my mother, my sister, her, or anyone else that is important to me, there will be severe consequences. Manage to kill them, there is no one that can stop me from gaining vengeance. Aide me or stay out of my way if that happens, because if you don't, you will be dead by the end of the night.
1. Prologue: The Human Inside

**Disclaimer: Pokemon does not belong to me. ****  
**

Prologue - The Human Inside

...

_Men are moved by two levers: Fear and Self Interest_. - Napoleon Bonaparte

...

Call me The Demon if you will, everyone does.

I am nothing but a machine, or that is what people think. I am still human and that is what everyone forgets.

A tool. I am a tool for other people to use when they want something exterminated.

I kill. I destroy. I assassinate. I conquer.

That is not all.

My emotions are suppressed. I compartmentalize them and store them deep in my mind. They are still there.

I still feel.

I still see. I still smell. I still touch. I still hear. I still taste. I still have nervousness when approaching or conversing with a pretty lady, not just_ her_. I am jealous when I see _her_ smile and laugh with another male. It is because _she is mine_. It is because he is making granting her happiness, if only for a few seconds or minutes. I do know know why, but I feel like I am the only one that should do that.

Unless it is her father or brother.

I have a family that I share smiles, but nothing else, with. Well, I did. Now, I just smile around her.

I have my mother left, but she is sick. My father disappeared without a trace. My sister was murdered.

So do you know what happens when you finally release an anger that you have been storing been storing many years? Or how to release it?

You do not do it by releasing it all at once. You ease it out of you. I did it by killing and destroying. No, not innocent civilians. Criminals.

I hope you do not think any less of me. I do not think any less of you for doing what you did. We are equals. We are of the same type.

Four years ago to the day, the day before I turned eighteen, the news said that Sophia Wolfe was found dead near Cerulean Cove - which led to, obviously, the cave. A man by the name of Dallas Brown was said to be responsible for her death. He was.

He supported Team Rocket, a criminal organization that masquerades as a valid charity group, like the Make-a Dream-come true foundation - a group that well, made dreams or wishes come true. Unimaginative? I know.

Team Rocket, however, had filed for bankruptcy ten years ago. Coincidentally, the trio of Red, Blue, and Green had blazed through Kanto, destroying nearly every Rocket outpost in the region with Green helping indirectly. Their story is unique and maybe one day I will tell it to you, Unovian.

They were splintered for at least nine years before they came back. Dallas Brown took over. He killed nearly every preexisting Rocket member with his own men, including Silver - the former boss's son - and Archer. Brown is a nastier leader than the ones before, well... was.

...However, there is rumors out there is a wealthy man in Pallet by the name of Giovanni. He looks eerily similar to the one the trio had taken down...

Anyway, the Legendary Trio, from Pallet, as we knew, could not reunite. Red was, and still is one Mount Silver, training. Gary, nicknamed Blue, fell deathly ill from a rare disease that is slowly causing him to lose all cognitive function in his brain. Leaf, who likes to be called Green over what she thinks is a 'stupid name', was somewhere in the world.

So if they could not eradicate Team Rocket? Who would?

The answer was me and my close friends. Including my wife, who was just my lover at the time.

The reason for this was journey simple. I could avenge my sister, possibly find out what happened to my father and help the whole region of Kanto.

Basically, it was to let out my rage, slowly and methodically.

Instead of that one popular expression, I had the possibility of killing three pidgeys with one stone.

I will tell you how I did it very soon. But, I have explain something quick to you.

_She_ suggested that I travel with seven pokemon to begin with, five of which were fully evolved and fully trained, with the sixth being a scyther that would rather not evolve. The seventh pokemon was a bulbasaur.

Anyway, I was under the guise of a beginner trainer, along with another girl named Sierra, who actually was a rookie, and my wife and two other friends. _She_, Lana, used that the excuse of we were in a relationship, as she already obtained her eight badges in the same year I did. Alistair, the eldest, wanted someone to mentor, and looking back it now, had a crush on the other girl. Orion was someone I brought along because he was, and is, more of a killing machine than I was, and am. His reason for agreeing was because, and to quote him, "Orion wants heads to roll."

However, those reasons were just the ones we publicly announced. Those just seem like superficial reasons, right? Well, they are. We each stood for something different.

Wrath. Lust. Pride. Envy. Sloth.

Even though, that is more of a Christian belief and not my religion, which I will not delve any further into, I thought it was apt for me list the deadly sins at that moment. However, I will make references to all sorts of religion. Some may be based on human belief and mythology and others will be Pokemon.

Concerning morality, no mortal is entirely evil and no mortal is entirely pure, that is of course if the mortal had not lived long enough to see the darkness of the world.

Everyone killed another human, if you were a trainer or a coordinator. It would be impossible not to, otherwise you would be the one that would be dead.

What differed from myself, and the people like me, and the people I murdered was that they killed for fun or if their victim was being a nuisance. Some killed for survival, as did I. But, I eliminated anyone that proved to be a threat, not just to myself, but to everyone. For protection. Yet, in a weird, twisted way, some preyed on others if they unwittingly ventured into their territory.

Everyone reacted differently. For the people that needed to die and it felt right for me to slay them, I did not feel any pang of regret of guilt. For the person, I did not mean to kill... I sat up the whole night, trying force myself not to puke.

Orion was a sociopath, a monster, but he acted as if everyone he killed deserved to die. In a way, he was, maybe is?, a fucked-up knight in shining armor. Both of the girls puked after any sort of battle where they had to kill. Alistair was different, he prayed for forgiveness for what they and he had done. He always, maybe still does, justified his actions.

One more thing, do not think of me being married at the age of twenty-two is a weird occurrence. As you will soon find out, Kanto is very different from Unova. It is more dangerous and_ twenty percent_ of people who do the League or Contest circuit have wound up dying. So, logically, people want to have happiness for as long as they live and do things just before they do it.

I do not know if you caught it, but I want to point out that twenty percent of people who travel in a circuit dies. The group I traveled with was five.

Let that sink in.

Figure it out yet?

_You should have._

Next time, I will not repeat myself.

I cut the choices down for you. It is not me or Lana.

So is it the Warrior? The Chief? Or the Chick?

...

As I describe Lana, you will see that she does not act like a chick with the way she handles things. But, to other things... Yeah.

With everything you need to know, I will finally start.

This is_ my story_. This is what will be passed down onto generations. _My legend_.

_My Vengeance_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Updated: 13 Jun 2013**

Chapter 2 - Realization

My head throbbed as I blinked a couple times to regain sense of my surroundings. I don't remember how I arrived in this location. I was in the outskirts of a town around dawn; there was a large building on the top of a hill from what I could see. I thought I was in an abandoned church, I wasn't sure but due to the layout it made me guess that. Early morning rays shined through broken windows that allowed me to see that benches were in bad shape and the doors were off their hinges along with cobwebs nearly everywhere. My back was against a wall that I was pretty that would break if I put any more pressure on it.

After pushing myself off the ground and staggering a bit, I could walk without a problem. I looked at myself and saw two pokeballs at my belt with a war club on it. I felt something that hindered my wrists so I pulled up my sleeves and saw that I had two sliding dagger mechanisms on both forearms. I pulled down both sleeves so the daggers could be hidden once again.

I didn't quite exactly remember which Pokemon I had; I grabbed each pokeball and called them out. Out the first ball materialized a tyranitar from a red light and charizard out of the second. Suddenly I remembered their names - Titan the tyranitar and Dante the charizard. They were as confused as I was. They gave me questionable looks which was natural because Pokemon are affected by whatever their trainers are feeling at any given moment. I felt a bit woozy for a second before I realized what I needed to do. I was confronted by a weird shape-shifter that told me I needed by a hero yet I can't be recognize as one.

I spoke to both of them, and I first turned to Titan to ask, "I need to be a hero without being recognized. Do you know how to do it? I sure as hell don't." Titan scrunched his eye-scales and shook his head, and turned to ask the same question to Dante but he puffed smoke out of his nostrils meaning the same thing as Titan. "I don't know the rules of Pokemon out of their balls around here so unless someone says otherwise, and you will stay out of your balls."

I pivoted myself towards the front door of the church and began to lumber towards civilization. It was about a half-hour trek to the inner town, on the way in I discovered that I was in Pallet, and I received odd looks from the inhabitants of the Pallet. I wasn't sure why people stared at me; I just wanted to find get to Professor Oak's Laboratory. I had to get registered as a Pokemon Trainer; otherwise I would be fined if somehow officials found out that I wasn't licensed.

The Pokemon League and government officials convened in a meeting so they could make laws on what you have do to become a Pokemon Trainer and what Pokemon trainers could carry.

To become a Pokemon Trainer, one had to have either gone through at least two years of training school if they are under the age of sixteen. If one is sixteen, then they would able to become a trainer without going to school. People who wanted to become a trainer had to pass a basic test which included knowledge of Pokemon as a whole and survival. There was fifty questions, in order to become a trainer one would have to get at least thirty-five questions right. It weeded out any people who were too incompetent to travel, but to be honest those type of people should be able become trainers and therefore Darwinism would take place.

I was seventeen so I could take the test without any problem and with my scar it would show the Professor I had experience with Pokemon. As for the test, I would get a perfect score or the very least make a stupid mistake that gets me a few points off. I was confident because I knew the basic psychology and biology of Pokemon, and with my luck, partly due to common sense and knowledge where it would lead me to a certain situation where luck kicks in, I could survive anything.

Now for the rules of a Pokemon Trainer for what they could have. As well as the tiers of Pokemon. The officials based the tiers on the Pokémon's size, attributes and temperament, as well as natural prowess. In all there were five tiers total. Tier one included Pokemon like larvitar, a docile Pokemon unless provoked or if his trainer was in danger, most starters Pokemon and other small Pokemon. A lot of tier one were house pets. A numerous amount of grass, normal, water, rock, steel, flying, ground-types were placed in tier one due to their natural laid-back style. Beginner Pokemon trainers and civilians were allowed to have these type of Pokemon.

Tier two was when Pokemon became more dangerous, well... they were all dangerous but some more so then others. Pokemon in tier two were larger and have a bigger temperament as well more dangerous abilities. They were often the second-form in an evolution chain. All fire, electric, fighting, ice, bug were ranked in tier two or higher due to their natural temperaments and the fact that it was easier for them to kill humans or other Pokemon with their abilities. This class was restricted to only Pokemon Trainers.

Tier three was often the last form in an evolution chain, like blastoise or venusaur. Poison, ghost, dark and psychic types were automatically tier three. This tier was left to the trainer's digression and the requirement of one badge.

Tiers four was automatically all dragons and more ferocious Pokemon with higher potential to kill and are harder to kill as well such as feraligatr or arboks. This tier was limited to Pokemon trainers with five or more badges.

Pokemon like tyranitar, aggron, and rhyperior or pretty much any Pokemon - that could change a landscape if they as so crack a branch unintentionally, were in tier five. All pseudo-legends and extremely temperamental Pokemon were included as well. Pokemon trainers with eight badges and have won some matches in a regional league can obtain a tier five Pokemon.

It was an unspoken rule that snorlax, onix, and gyarados were left to the champions and Elite four. Any trainer with thirty-two badges could also carry these Pokemon as well.

Any violation resulted in immediate death of the Pokemon and a heavy fine to the trainer. Often the price was death to the trainer by their Pokemon.

Obviously, this system had its fair share of flaws as the only people that question what Pokemon a trainer had was if the trainer was younger, like mid-teens. Unless their last name was Oak or Ketchum.

I was going to ask Professor Oak for a special pass to allow me to carry a Pokemon like Scyther, even it was a tier four Pokemon and I had zero badges. I know that I didn't have a Scyther on me right now, but when I travel through Viridian forest, I plan to capture one then.

I asked someone where the lab was and I was surprised the pleasantness the elderly woman gave me. She said the lab was up the hill, I would've expected a sneer with how obvious the lab was. I said thanks and I was off.

I made my way through the back alley's of Pallet to get to the bill and the road up to the lab was long and winding. It took me around five minutes to trek up the hill. I recalled both of my Pokemon as I wanted to save their energy for later when I get out into the wild. I marched towards the front door and knocked heavily three times.

Soon the door opened and an assistant, who appeared to be in her early twenties, poked her out head to say, "how may I help you?"

"I need to see the professor," I replied and as she motioned for me to come in.

"Follow me," she said. There was a lot of white-noise from the machines in the side rooms; I wondered what he was researching at the time. She showed me into what I thought was his office due to the amount of books on his shelves and the fact he had posters of woman in bikinis on the second floor. I guessed it was unprofessional to have them showing on the first floor where everyone could see them. The obvious fact was his coat on his spinning chair. Professor Oak was on a side desk, with his head buried into a book. She knocked on side of the door which woke up Oak so she stated, "you have a guest."

"Uh right, thanks Elisabeth," Oak yawned and stretched before he turned his attention to me, "what can I do for you?"

"I need to get registered," I answered as he stood up once he heard that reply and staggered over to a machine on the other side of the room.

"Over here," he said as he sat down on a stool and started to type swiftly. I walked to where he sat and he looked up to me and said, "last name, first."

"Wolfe, Marshall."

"Age?"

"17."

"Date of birth," he didn't look up at all; he just kept his head buried on the keyboard and screen.

"July 22, 2597," When I answered, Oak quizzically looked up at me and I thought he just assumed he heard something wrong.

"Height, weight."

"Six foot three, two-hundred twenty-five."

He didn't say the next question as he looked up at me; I presumed it was hair color and eye color.

"Criminal record."

"No."

"Stand in front of the screen, and look at the camera," he got out of the way as I stepped in front of the screen like he said. He bent down to they keyboard and typed a few things whilst I kept staring at the camera thing. A moment later, a flash went off and my face appeared on the camera screen. He did a few more seconds of typing and clicking and soon enough my trainer card was printed. He grabbed the card and went into a closet where he grabbed a red device. He placed the card on top of an advanced pokedex, and smiled when he extended his arms. I plucked the items out of his hands, he said, "Remember your trainer number. It's the date of your birthday, in your case 7/22 but since its over the limit it's going to be 22/7, and the number of your initials in on a 9-digit keypad, 'M' is 6 and 'W' is 9. So your trainer number is 22769."

I put the trainer card in my back pocket without checking over it, and made a mental note to buy myself a wallet. I motioned to the pokedex, and he explained, "that is your pokedex. It has an in-depth analysis of every Pokemon you encounter, such as tactics, and its psychology. It also gives you a status on your Pokemon, if they are at full-health or not. Nowadays, badges are symbolized in electronics so the pokedex stores that information as well."

"What happens if the data gets corrupted? Will I have to earn that badge again?" I asked; I didn't trust electronics or any machines for that matter. I didn't trust anything that didn't bleed but then again I didn't trust anything that actually does bleed unless it's my Pokemon. Or her, a girl that I can't remember at all. What she looked like or what she was named was a mystery to me. I knew there was someone though.

He chuckled, "the data is sent to the cloud. The cloud is run by the Pokemon League. It can't be corrupted or destroyed, all the information is carefully managed by tech people. They report any oddities so I would suggest not capturing anything that will put you at risk to get hunted down by an official. In case you do capture a Pokemon that is above your tier level, you have a week to send it to  
me."

"I understand that but I can handle a tyranitar very well, or dangerous Pokemon like that," I said. "I can kill a Pokemon in many different ways, I know every weak spot. I took a course in psychology; I know what angers certain Pokemon or what calms them down, what makes them happy, sad. I somewhat understand what goes through their mind."

"I can't write give you an affidavit of me saying that you can handle higher tier Pokemon. You have to prove it, you have to earn it the old fashioned way," he denied me apologetically before I even asked. "I didn't give you the test because I knew that you could handle yourself well in the wild."

"Okay, thank you for the help," I said as I turned to walk out the door.

"One more thing," Oak said I turned around and he forced potions and some pokeballs into my hands. I nodded thank you and left before I stuffed them into my already full of supplies one-strap back-pack.

"Be careful out there," I heard him whisper.

I wondered why he didn't ask me to register my pokemon, when both were tier five pokemon and I didn't have a single badge.

Besides that, I felt there was something was very wrong with him.

* * *

_SC_

* * *

Titan was fully trained in the way of earth manipulation. Now, I just needed to teach him how to manipulate fire and water.

He was completely loyal to a fault, I could say jump off a cliff and he would actually jump off a cliff. He wouldn't die because he knew how to soften his landing but still. He would do anything I did.

Dante, on the other hand, did not have the same problems as Titan did, or the problems I had with him. Since Dante was a charizard, I had to worry about setting things on fire or puffing smoke when not needed.I didn't have to worry about Dante eating anything and everything after training. I did have to worry about biting, scratching and bloodlust. Almost all reptiles are programmed to eat meat, well the older ones anyway, so when one tastes or even smells blood for the first time they go insane. To my knowledge, Dante had never tasted meat before. So when he does, I did not know how he was going to react. He was naturally strong due to the fact he had an azure fire, but that might've been genetics. I would have contact my sister about that.

I had set up camp, more like found a tree, on Route 1 for the night; I was approximately an half a day away from Viridian. I had to stock up supplies and earn some money there, the supplies I already had wouldn't last me in the forest. I could challenge the gym leader there but I didn't know if he was there or not. If I managed to get a room or at least some money to use a videophone, I would call my sister, Sophia, or at least try to track her down.

My sister was a former coordinator and was now a researcher, well from the last time I heard about her from someone. She was researching genetics but something brought her to Cerulean Cave, it was something about Mew. She had to be escorted by champions, the league ones not the leader of the elite four who is the ruler of the region. She had to get down to the bottom to find out what she needed to, but others hadn't heard from her or her escorts in a long time. I hoped that she was still alive.

Sophia's work was revolutionary. It was so important that The Champion, not the champions, allowed her to enter Cerulean Cave. Cerulean Cave was a place full of dangerous Pokemon, so much so as a simple parasect, the Pokemon that scuttled away when one shined light on it, could find a million ways to kill you. The Pokemon down there wasn't bashful or scared; they were flat out ambitious and tenacious. The only people allowed down there are league champions.

My first goal was to find Sophia and my second goal was to find out who I really was, it was tied in on finding who the girl was in my head. I had a time limit on the first goal and the second, I'm not quite sure but I hope I achieved it.

The girl in my head was special. She kept me in line and remembered me of what I needed to do. She supported whatever I did, even if what I chose what not the best choice. She stuck by me. That had to count for something.

I don't have enough time to become a league champion, so I had to make a hell of an impression on the gym leaders and if I do, I might get a recommendation out of them. If their recommendations won't let me in alone, I hope they would let me face a league champion to prove I can handle myself. Right now, I can't, but I would able to when the time came.

Evolution was also another problem with my own time constraints. With the other pokemon I caught, I had to make sure they were in their final evolved form or were close.

It took a few years for a normal larvitar to become a tyranitar, mine had taken nearly eight. That was because I took the time to master Titan's form and when he was ready, he slowly allowed himself to change so he wouldn't be too out of order. Evolution can't happen overnight, but the mindset of wanting to evolve can. Evolution itself is an interesting concept; it varies with each species and each individual Pokemon.

Dante evolved to a charizard in six years, again because I was careful with my training.

Fast evolvers, mostly bugs and aquatic Pokemon, take weeks, at the fastest, to undergo evolution. Medium evolvers, such as mammal, smaller reptiles like charmander and birds, go through a month process, again at the very least. Dragons, rock/steel/ground-types, and extremely large Pokemon, such as munchlax to snorlax, have the longest duration of evolution. The fastest recorded length of going through two evolutions by a slow-evolver was eight months and twenty-two days.

The Pokemon was physically fine but its intelligence and ability to learn new techniques and facts plummeted as opposed to one that went through a five-year double evolution. The Pokémon's motivation and drive could be compared to a championship loser. It suffered from depression. Speeding through evolution was a dangerous thing and younger children nowadays, from what I've seen so far, want more power quicker. Whereas the older generation waited patiently for the power, which is bad thing in one regard. I guess that was area I needed to change of the world, their thoughts on evolution.

I leaned back against a tree, which had been covered by two sheets of earth thanks to Titan. Dante was close to my body - I didn't want to risk hypothermia. Kanto was dangerously cold during the night. Dante never enjoyed it in the first minutes but he soon warmed up to the idea, however it didn't mean he couldn't scratch me whilst he was sleeping.

Having Titan close to me wouldn't have been a good idea due to the fact he also gets cold. I also trusted Titan a lot more than I did Dante. Being a creature of the darkness, Titan could see well and fight better at night. His most powerful surges were during the full and new moon. I also felt more powerful during the night and those two occurrences as well. Ghosts and psychics were afraid of me, more so Titan, as well, so I was the king during the night. When someone fought me, I had to use dirty tactics to fight them, such as my hidden daggers. I also had distaste for bugs as well. What this meant to my identity? I had no idea.

I had to train Dante what it meant to watch over me during the night, but then I realized it wouldn't be a good idea because of his tail light. It was virtually a magnet to larger Pokemon. Although during the day when I felt something watching, I did notice him enlarging the tail flame to give the appearance of an even bigger charizard. It worked wonderfully because my paranoia went away after he did that. So I guess his tail flame wasn't that bad.

Before falling asleep, I thought about of all the young trainers that I had passed and hoped they would survive. Knowing how the world is a cruel and dangerous place, my thoughts were highly unlikely.

* * *

_SC_

* * *

I was abruptly awakened from my slumber from trees creaking and falling down to the earth nearby, I quickly rubbed my eyes to see that Titan had passed out at the entrance of the large earth tent. He wasn't going to wake up anytime soon after being up nearly all night so I returned the tyranitar to his ball. Dante was terrible to be around in the morning, so I returned him as well to save myself a headache.

I crawled out of the small tent before I swiftly jumped to my feet and looked to the source of the noise - I knew that the trees wouldn't fall down by themselves. It wasn't windy either so my guess it was either a human or a Pokemon, the former I could less about but the former...

I needed to get out of this area as soon as possible.

Even it wasn't windy, I still smelt a wretched smell that almost made me puke. Meaning if I was close enough to smell the carnage, it meant whatever it was it could smell me.

Between the trees collapsing and the smell, it couldn't have been scyther or sceptile seeing as they don't go on destructive rampages. It wasn't any elemental or ground-type Pokemon as I would see the elements or feel the tremors. So I soon got tired of deducing the Pokémon so my curiosity got the better of me.

I wanted to see what it was before I decided on fight or flight. The smell and noise came from the northwest, so I hid behind a tree on the left side of Route 1. I ran from to tree a few times before I saw what the source of the smell and destruction was.

I forced my back onto a tree and slowly rolled my head to see what it was. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw a newly made, wasn't exactly new but more so enlarged, clearing with many trees fallen down. Pokemon, in the trees and on the ground alike, were littered in this clearing. Many were decapitated or had their intestines hanging out of their guts. Flies buzzed over the rotten carcasses, the Pokemon had been on a rampage for a while, and not just Pokemon. There were some humans that were killed by the same menace. I noticed a teenager; well he just became one over the summer, lying there. It was a trainer that I had met yesterday and so, naturally, I felt horrible.

In the middle of this clearing stood a dark brown Pokemon on a tree stump, it wasn't moving. It was just there. Its grayish horns, which blood caked the inside curves, gave the bug most of its height. The horns also had numerous spikes which oozed poison that paralyzed its victims which in turn caused respiratory arrest. Once the poison entered the victim's bloodstream, the poison blocked any nerve impulses but I was never taught the actual scientific reasons for the nervous system breakdown other than the blocked impulses.

Not only did the horns ooze toxins, muscles that could decapitate nearly everything, as long as being quick, powered them. However the horns were not meant for stabbing as its short and stocky arms and legs could not possibly tear the victim off of it. If the pinsir managed to impale something, it would release a second poison that would slowly liquefy its victim.

Needless to say if I was attacked by the pinsir, I needed to avoid its horns at all costs.

I didn't know why I couldn't sprint away or even look away from the pinsir. It was like I was frozen in fear. I thought about it for a second, and I guessed that I was.

The moment of realization struck me, this was real life. It wasn't a training mission. I had only one chance to win, and if I didn't the consequence was death.

Even with this epiphany, I was still frozen.

The pinsir started to move, it dropped the half-eaten carcass that was in its claws, they weren't made like a reptiles or felines where it would have made a clean crisp slash. Instead the claws of a pinsir were serrated and were meant to tear its prey into shreds. It had no trouble with the hide of a rhydon or the underbelly of a gyarados whereas a smooth blade would have.

It pivoted on its short stumpy legs; however it wouldn't be wise to disregard them from moving at a quick pace. Muscles that provided it to accelerate at high speeds powered them.

When it fully turned around, I all but shit myself in fear. Being scared of other humans with bigger weapons? I laughed in their face. Scared of a raging ursaring? Not me. Scared of the dark? I was the epitome of darkness. Scared of demons? I was THE demon. Scared of heights? Sometimes. Scared of arbok or a swarm of beedrill? Yeah right. Was I scared of an angry mother or other angry woman? No, I scoffed at them.

Scared of the sight in front of me? Hell yeah. Who the hell wouldn't be?

Its sunken blood red eyes seemingly stared straight into my soul. Remnants of fresh blood dripped from the corners of pinsir's oblong mouth, coating its sharpened fangs that seemed to move on their own accord, not to mention each fang wiggled simultaneously, and giving its throat a red tint.

The pinsir's teeth were a wood chipper, once anyone put anything that had any trace amount of blood or had a pulse inside its mouth there would be no evidence of what was put inside. There multiple rows of teeth, it was like a sharpedo in that regard. Its mouth led to a pit of acid that dissolved aggron scales, one of the hardest metals in the world that not even arbok poison could seep through. Although to be fair whatever entered its stomach was not alive anyway.

Not only did it have powerful attacking methods, it was indestructible by means of physical attacks. It had an amazingly hard exoskeleton, however only Pokemon like machamp and tyranitar could tear it apart via physical means. The other way to defeat a pinsir was the use of fire.

The reaction time to dig in my bag, call out my Pokemon, and order to attack was a lot slower than the pinsir's time to react to me.

My survival instincts had finally kicked in as it started to walk towards me, and so I proceeded to run like hell in the opposite direction.

It would've been better to fight when I had the chance.

I momentarily forgot that pinsir had quick acceleration so when I turned my backs towards it begun to sprint. In a few seconds right after I cleared the edge of the forest, I felt something land on my back. Claws grasped my shoulders as I felt them to dig into my flesh. I landed face first on the ground. We had skidded nearly ten feet due to the fact that it had been damp due to the early morning dew. In the meantime of skidding the ground, I rolled onto my back to face the monster.

It growled incoherently at me as it held my arms in place so I couldn't fight back. Its thick saliva dripped onto my torso, its breath smelled of death and oddly, nectar. Its saliva was slightly acidic so I felt my chest burn, but not enough to melt through flesh.

The pinsir begun to claw at my shoulders, ripping my clothing to shreds. I felt the hooks on its claws tear open my flesh, and that was when I realized I couldn't lie there. It would've been just as easy to say I died by suicide if I didn't fight back.

There were only a few inches of space between me and it, and that was enough of a range of motion for my neck. My arms were now numb, but I couldn't have done anything with them due to its weight. I went with the next best thing, a head butt. With all my power, I cocked back my head and swiftly jerked it forward.

I staggered it enough to get enough space for my dagger, it reared back and without hesitation I activated my dagger before I plunged it in between a crack of its carapace. It only snarled in response. No sound of pain emitted from its demonic mouth.

Before I reached for Dante's pokeball, the pinsir was back on me. It tackled to me to the ground and I felt awful. My head bounced off the earth twice, my brain felt rattled and I was sure that I received a concussion. I was confused, and I barely remembered anything before this sequence of events. The pinsir was blurry and I was sure that I saw it twice.

The pinsir looked to rear back and tear to me to shreds with its claws. It made two swipes at me; it slowly dragged the claws against my chest, making sure to drag this experience out. Its claws tugged at my skin, almost like it was trying to flay me alive. I was to the point where I wanted to scream, however I didn't and just clenched my teeth in agony. I wiggled my legs and tried my best to knee the pinsir but it took this action as a threat and proceeded to punch me in my face. It took two hits at my face before I felt shouting and a bright light traveling my way. I for sure thought I was near death.

I became warmer and warmer, and the light on my left appeared larger. In a second, there was no more pressure on my body and the yellowish-white beam cackled past me.

I strained to turn my head towards the pinsir as I caught a glimpse of another bolt of energy stream past me, and I instantly heard the pinsir growl at its attacker, even if it was staggering. I faintly saw its carapace blackened and most likely brittle. My vision was getting narrower and darker as the pinsir slowly stalked towards its enemy with his horns lowered.

Then I faintly heard another command, "Volt tackle!"

SC

I came to, and soon realized it was nearly dark. The sun was past the tree-line but its orange rays still illuminated the sky. I felt some warmth radiate from the small fire that was built, and there was an older man, in his late fifties was my guess, sitting cross-legged.

Next to him was a yellow-brownish mouse-like Pokemon who was curled up into a ball. It had long ears and feet, along with stubby arms that were tipped with dark brown fur. It had two horizontal stripes on its back that matched the same its paws and ears. Its long, thin tail had a broad, lightning bolt-shaped end twirled in the air.

I saw that it had a white belly. The soles of its big feet, almost the same size as its chest, were tan colored. Its bifurcated ears were brown on the outsides and yellow on the insides, and end in a distinctive curl at their bottom-most point. Its ears twitched at the slightest noise and were highly sensitive. The electric sacs, that generated 100,000 volts if need be, on its cheeks were yellow. If the sacs generated its maximum output, then its ears would stand straight up, meaning no one should be in the vicinity.

My torso and shoulders burned when I tried to sit up, so when I tried it again, along with my head pounding to the point where it felt it was going to explode, I grunted in agony.

"Take it easy Marshall," the man said as I squinted to get a better look at him. I was thoroughly confused at the moment, how exactly did he know my name? I didn't know him. At first he didn't look familiar, but then combined with his voice and his unruly mane that still somehow had a vibrant raven color. Not to mention his warm auburn eyes, I knew exactly who I was dealing with.

"Headmaster?" I mumbled as my brain was overloading with information and ideas. None coherent though.

"No," The headmaster took another sip of his tea and gave me a warm smile, "but feel free to call me Ash."

"I'm serious; I thought you were the headmaster of that one thing..." I said, my memory was hazy but I knew he was my mentor at a school somewhere.

"Was," Ash said as he poured some tea into his cup, clearly not holding back on his favorite beverage. He then extended it to his raichu who walked it over to me and helped me sit up. I grunted as the raichu poured the tea into my mouth as I was unable to. "Marshall," he began to add, "I was the headmaster of the Midnight Academy. I've been retired for two years, and two years have passed since the incident with Mew."

My mind raced... how did I not notice that it has been two years? I managed to utter, "how?"

"Mew decided that the past two years were useless and time wasting to you," he grimaced "so he asked Celebi to thrust you into the future." Ash was not pleased with the demigod's actions either. I wondered if Ash knew what I felt. There was a white-hot rage building up inside of me but I did want an answer to one particular question. Ash looked at my face and seemingly waited for me to say something before he continued.

"Sophia?" I questioned, "What happened to or where is Sophia?"

He sighed, and chills went down my spine. He opened his mouth but then closed his mouth. He was carefully choosing his next words, if I was in his shoes I would too. His reactions prodded me to pester him, I spoke in a low voice,

"What. the. hell. happened. to. Sophia."


	3. Chapter 3

**Updated: 13 Jun 2012**

Chapter 3 - Lana

I was not pleased with what Ash had said.

A few days passed since the pinsir attack, I recovered faster than the headmaster expected me to. The headmaster, although he preferred me to call him Ash, had filled me on events that happened during the past two years, most of my previous knowledge on civilization was still valid. Ash had told me the events were basically fuel for any conversation that I managed to strike up, no events affected me much except for one. The one was the fact that a renegade trainer with a team of pseudo-legendary Pokemon had demolished Blackthorn City. The trainer had been terrorizing cities and towns for the past two years, and his current whereabouts were in Viridian Forest. No one knew his motives, it had been theorized that he did as an act of war because he had been wearing a Hoenn insignia. Hoenn denied the allegations and in fact gave them all there records on this renegade trainer.

Ash realized that I needed to train my pokemon more, so both of us harshly trained the stubborn charizard and Titan. We forced them to swim, Dante for only a few minutes because if it went any longer, he would perish, and go through speed drills. Evasion drills were the worst for Dante; he was too stubborn to move out of the way. He ended up with many bruises from the rocks and bits of earth Titan had thrown at him. Titan on the other hand moved like a ninja and it frustrated Ash's Pokemon to no end along with Dante. Dante had the worst frustration; he would leave the training session and come back with more cuts and bruises than before. He would often shoot fireballs at both me and Ash unexpectedly as another way to vent his anger.

We responded with buckets of water when he was sleeping.

Needless to say... he learned quickly.

The training got me thinking of if I managed to run into the renegade, I would want to try to get him to aide me with my goal rather than try to battle him with my Pokemon. I knew I couldn't defeat the Elite Four and league champions alone; it would suicide to attempt it.

I would succeed if I had an army of well-trained trainers behind my back. My question for myself was how? How would I be able to achieve something like that without being recognized?

Achieving this goal would satisfy my two objectives: retribution and changing the course of history in the making.

Ash always reminded me that revenge wasn't always the best answer. I responded that how would he act if he found that his wife or daughter had been killed by someone. He had no answer. I knew him all too well; he would do the exact same thing as me. Although for some reason, he kept mentioning his daughter to me, her name was McKayla who was around my age, and he told me to protect her at all costs when I met her. I honestly didn't care what her name was or the fact I had to protect her.

If she attempted to stop me in getting retribution, I would kill her.

I just knew that I had to find her, a different her. She was the only person I cared for. Yet I had no fucking idea what she looked like but thanks to Ash, I knew her name was Lana. There was just a void in my mind and, as soft as it may seem in this world where only the most hardened trainers survive, heart.

Planning careful plans were neither I nor Ash's expertise; we were the people that thought on the fly. Having two people of two opposing ideals make a plan of action of what I should do was obviously not a good idea. I was angry most of the time but it never shown, which was why most of my plans had me chopping off heads off of everything. Ash's plans consisted of hands-off moves, political work, and letting grunts do the work. After all, he had the world's most powerful people, who had many connections, loyal to him.

We eventually settled on a plan that consisted of thinking on the fly.

However, we did came up with a four step outline, virtually set in stone. We wrote it on a piece a paper... Which I currently lost. Oh well.

By the time we decided this, my wounds were nearly all healed and I could function properly. I presumed it was on the fifth day, the first few days I was left lying down so it was blur, after my incident. Ash had decided to accompany me to the southern outskirts of Viridian. We left early in the morning, passing various merchants and trainers, some of which I battled. Ash told me how grandiose Viridian was compared to the other cities, the only others that compared were Cerulean and the Indigo Plateau. Other cities were bigger, however, like Celadon and Saffron.

"Hey," Ash said as we waited for the gates to open, "can I stop holding your hand through everything we do?"

"Yeah right," I scoffed, "I was making sure you wouldn't fall over and scream, _Help! I can't get up!"_

We both chuckled in response, during the last week we had playfully bantered with each other; I only remembered it happening during training missions. The banter was mostly about my inexperience and his old age.

The gates creaked as the stone opening revealed a vast city down below the hill - Viridian was located in a valley. A lake with a lush forest blanketed the entire southeastern corner of the region. To the northwest was a plateau where I presumed the gym was located, Ash said that he would help know the basics of scheduling a gym battle. Magnificent skyscrapers littered the skyline, and there were other elegant buildings that were used for the upper-class houses. However the lower-class homes were still decent compared to cardboard shelters or whatnot.

We carefully treaded down the steep roadway to the far corner of the city - the gym.

"You know," Ash looked over at me with a smirk when we entered the gym, "when I was your age, I was already a Pokemon master."

"I don't know about that," I gave him a slight smirk and tilted my head to meet my shoulder, "Pokemon were weaker in ancient times. Trainers were too. So that means it wasn't quite an achievement as it is today."

"Hey," he retorted, "I was still considered a master."

"Was."

An earthy aroma infiltrated my nostrils; it wasn't necessarily bad but not pleasant either. Rumbling and heavy crashes sounded through the air. Both were expected as the Viridian City gym was based on ground types, and because of it the air was slightly humid and cool.

A man who looked no older than twenty-five greeted us. He wore a black blazer with a white v-neck underneath that was surprisingly not covered in any type of dirt which differed from any other trainer in the gym. His dark blue jeans and black leather shoes happened to be pristine as well.

"Hey junior," Ash chirped as he pointed at the man's outfit, "you sure are working hard."

Between the man's reaction and Ash's smirk, I felt the love between them.

"What did I say about calling me Junior?" 'Junior' grumbled with a light blush on his face.

"Oh yeah, Marshall this is Gary Jr.," Ash said, whilst completely ignoring Junior's question, as he made an introductory gesture between me and Gary, "and Junior this is Marshall."

I acknowledged him with a simple nod but he went for a handshake, along with a smile, and that was when Ash said, "he doesn't like talking to people he doesn't know much."

He completely left out that I didn't like talk to people I didn't like either. Junior fell under both conditions.

"Oh," said Gary as his smile faded. "I'm guessing you want to challenge me for a badge?"

I nodded and simply asked, "When?"

"Uh, give me a minute," Gary said as he jogged over to an office to the right of me.

I assumed that was where I needed to make battle appointments, and when I asked Ash about that he confirmed my assumption. He also said that I needed to go in there myself when the leader didn't meet me directly.

The leader returned a few moments later. "How does two days from now at noon sound?

I nodded once more.

"Alright, see you then," he said before he returned to wherever he came from in the first place.

* * *

_SC_

* * *

Ash and I quickly found the Pokemon Center after we left the gym. Along the way, Ash was a little nice because he gave people spare change after they had displayed their talents. He gave around five performers each 200poke, which was enough for room in a hotel. I had a little issue with that.

How rich was he to give away 1000poke like it was nothing? 1000poke was enough to buy an used car, albeit in terrible shape... still a car nonetheless.

And Ash gave it away without much thought. He could've used the money for toilet paper if he so desired. Then I realized he won numerous championships and leagues in his prime. He even had a prolonged stint as the leader of the elite four of Kanto.

We entered the Pokemon Center and the person standing near the front desk, not the nurse who had oddly colored hair, interrupted my thoughts.

_Tousled black hair. Tooth missing. Baby blue eyes. Tan skin. Scraped Knees. Ragged clothing. Panting. Sunset on the beach. Holding hands. _

_..._

_Falling down. Looking up. Seeing those teary eyes. Bleeding. Intense Pain. Comfort. Crying, her not me. Broken. Scars.  
_

_..._

_Big Bully. Standing Up. Slapping the bully. Meanie. Double battle. Victory. Kiss.  
_

_..._

_ . Starry Night. Cliff. Cold. Isolation. Too much pain. Comfort. Hormones. Love. _

_...  
_

_Prom. Pretty Dress. Nice Hair. Perfect. King. Queen. _

_..._

_Graduation. Flames. Destruction. Death. Safety. _

_..._

_Unsure Smile_. _Confused emotions_. _Longing_. _Me. _

To be honest, too many memories, experiences, and thoughts of the girl standing in front of me flooded my mind. Everyone else included in those visual memories were a blur, their names unknown, faces blanked. Not her, she was the one who escaped my thoughts for the last few days.

There was no other girl with the same wavy black hair and vibrant sapphire eyes as Lana, so it had to be her. Her same outfit that she always wore. She had an unsure expression on her face when I locked my eyes with her, and that wiped away any doubt that it wasn't Lana. I didn't know whether it was anger or happiness. It was like she wanted to be angry, presumably for me being gone for two years, or happy that I'm back with the same reason as her being angry.

Lana looked back to the nurse before she gave her a quick smile and the pokeballs she had in her hands. Nodding, the nurse returned to behind her desk and put the balls in the machine. I wanted to watch what she would do with them but the fact that I was nearly tackled to the ground prevented me from doing so. I took a few steps and stabilized us.

Her arms were wrapped around my torso and she buried her head into my chest. Because of my wounds from earlier, all I could do was stand there and cringe but to be fair her warm body felt nice. I returned the hug right after the pain subsided.

"Marshall," she said but it was muffled, "I've missed you so much."

I wanted to say, _the last time I saw you was a week ago... Not that big of a deal_. However it would not bode well for me. Instead, I replied, "I missed you too, Lana."

I looked for Ash but I realized in the midst of me being tackled, he left. Lana was perfectly fine hugging me, but I wasn't. I stepped away from her and led her to a bench on the side of the lobby, I said, "I'm not complaining but why are you here?"

"Oh umm," she paused for a second to place her hair behind her ears, "Ash said he found you and told me to meet you here."

"When did he say that?" I furrowed my eyebrows, I guessed that he called one her one of those time he returned early.

"A few days ago," Lana answered as she put her hands back into her lap after she tried to hold mine - I accidentally pulled them back go scratch my head. However she played it off like it was nothing, she questioned, "So the last two years really have been a blank to you?"

"I thought it was 3014 a week ago," I sheepishly spoke.

"So you're really out of place in society?" Lana teased with an ear to ear grin.

I opened my mouth to say something but I didn't have a comeback so I then closed it after a second of thinking. No matte what I would've said, she would've made a better taunt. I conceded defeat and hung my head, "yes."

"Still can't tease other people, huh?" giggled Lana, and I shook my head in response. "Ash told me that Titan again..."

"No...?" I replied, cutting her off before she finished. I reached for Titan's ball and called him out. Titan shook his head to get rid of his temporary confusion that happened every time a Pokemon was called out of a ball. He looked around for a second and had a surprised expression when he saw Lana. "Ash is getting too old..."

"Aw, hey Titan! How you are you doing?" Titan growled affectionately to her touch, he was like a damn growlithe when she was around. "Want to see Nixie?" She asked him. Obviously he nodded and so Lana dug into her satchel and brought out another ball. Out of the ball came a somewhat majestic Pokemon that regally stood on its four legs.

Its dark blue-grayish body was covered in pearl white fur that felt like silk, it had a mane but it wasn't as big as an arc nine's, and a tuft on the top of its head adorned with a single blue-black oval. It had a cat-like face, which hid its extremely sharp fangs well, a scythe-like tail, quite similar to a scyther's... scythe, and a sickle-shaped growth on the side of its head, both of which could slice through the toughest hides combined with its muscles. Its body is sleek and feline, making it well suited for its life in the mountains. Its broad, circular feet were equipped with three claws each, and spikes protrude from the heels of its hind legs and the elbows of its anterior legs. Its head resembled a Yin-Yang symbol.

People looked at us oddly for having an absol, not to mention the monster, out in public, but we didn't pay attention to them. We carried out with our conversation.

"So how many badges have you earned?" I asked whilst admiring the regal absol, which was something odd to describe an Absol - regal - only because it was a dark-type and dark-types were far from regal. In fact most Pokemon didn't have a dignified attitude, and it just so happens that a dark-type Pokemon happened to have that attitude.

"I've earned like ten," she said shyly, it was obvious that she didn't like having that few badges, "but I haven't been focusing on the badges."

"Well, what have you been focusing on?" I inquired.

"Can we talk about it over dinner?" Lana smiled, probably showing restraint of divulging into the particular topic.

The fact that her stomach rumbled made me realize that I over thought it and she was just hungry. It did prompt me to ask, "when was the last time you ate? ... And to answer your question, yeah."

"Last night," she faintly blushed, most likely due to the fact she made that noise, however it quickly faded before she exclaimed, "Come on, I have a favorite place here!"

I didn't have a chance to call back Titan or counteract. I knew shouldn't be thinking about Ash at a time like this, but where was he? I needed him to bail me out.

She dragged me half-way down the street by my hand before she let go. The way the city looked at night was kind of amazing; I wondered how it looked from above. Lights everywhere and there were a couple of light shows going on down certain streets. The crisp cool air also made me feel amazing, I loved that feeling. Seeing my breath as a slight wind went down my back.

Lana barely talked on the way to her favorite place; I think she was busy trying to get me not to turn back. I had no intention of turning back; faking to on the other hand... now that was fun.

It took us around fifteen minutes to get to the southeastern corner, which was near the lake inside the boundaries of Viridian. Once there, she led me to a two-story log cabin with a view of the lake. It was named the _Brock's Grill and Bar_, it was a chain restaurant, just the second one opened out of nine in the region, but to be fair it was better than most of the five-star restaurants, or so I heard from Lana. That was just her though.

Once we entered the cabin, a hostess greeted us and asked us if we wanted to sit upstairs and outside. Of course Lana said yes, but I didn't care - I just wanted to eat as soon as possible. I assumed Lana did too because she normally hated eating in the cold outside - from what I remember anyway. We ordered our drinks and then we continued our conversation from earlier.

"So what have you been focusing on instead of the gym badges Lana?" asked I.

"Um, Ash told you what happened with your sister right?" Lana questioned so I nodded in response; I wondered how she could possibly be connected with Sophia. She continued, "Alright, well he just told you that she was murdered by the Elite Four right?"

"Right," I furrowed my eyebrows on where she was going with this.

"It isn't exactly the truth," She paused and my mind raced with the other causes for her death. "Sophia was protected by League Champions and an elite four member, Aya - daughter of former elite four member Koga, while she was in Cerulean Cave. Word got out that the little research party reached the bottom and that was the last anyone heard from them."

"When was this?" I asked as we momentarily paused our conversation to get our drinks and order our dinners.

"It was a week before our graduation two years ago. It's unclear what happened down there, and the only person that survived is Aya. Aya mysteriously appeared at the entrance of Cerulean Cave - well she was the only found since," Lana continued with the account of what actually happened to Sophia. I was certain that the only person capable of telling the whole truth was Aya. "Aya was a mess, physically, emotionally but not mentally for some reason and all of her Pokemon were dead. Her memory of the whole excursion was wiped clean up - not even the best psychic in the world could retrieve it."

"Since no one found any of the other party members they are presumed dead, and Aya was blamed for the loss of everyone involved in the case. However most people blamed whatever the hell is down at the bottom of Cerulean Cave," Lana finished with the first part of her story. One thing bothered me, Sophia may not be dead after all and they were trying to say that she was with no proof. What if the thing at the bottom of the cave is keeping them there as hostage?

"I know this relates to your focus... But how?" I questioned as she took another deep breath so she could continue on with he speech.

"Hold on a second," She said as she took a sip of her drink. She added, "Naturally everyone was curious and so a few parties of extremely talented trainers and coordinators delved deep into the cave. The result of every expedition was the same - no survivors. A year ago, Iris, Elite Four Leader - the Dragon Master restricted all access to Cerulean Cave to only Elite Four members."

"So what did you do?" I asked, hoping that she would get to the point soon. I didn't mind this information but it was too much too handle right now. Plus I was wondering where she was going with this.

"I did research," Lana replied, I responded with a gesture that meant go on, "on what could completely erase a memory of a whole year."

"And?"

"Only a legendary Pokemon is able to accomplish that feat," Lana stated. "The psychic demigods do not concern themselves with humans unless they feel like we're heading for an apocalypse. We're on a course for a worldwide war and destruction but not apocalypse - or so the higher beings think."

I gave Lana a blank stare, partially because it didn't make sense and the fact that the world as I knew it was headed for an apocalypse. I didn't know of another reason as to why Arceus would intervene with humans, albeit indirectly. If he did show up, we knew we were in trouble.

"I'm not good with legendary mythology, okay?" Lana flustered herself and so I just shrugged.

"Go on," I said.

"So I did more research on psychic legendary Pokemon, and none were shone to have that capability. However, there was a unique residue left in Aya's mind that was similar to the Kanto demigod, Mew. It was not the same though," Lana said.

"What are you suggesting?" I questioned, furrowing my eyebrows in the process.

"The Pokemon that erased Aya's memory was a super Pokémon created by humans," Lana stated.

"Anything more?"

"Yes, it has connections to either the Pokemon League or the charity organization Team Rocket," Lana replied. "I have nothing else, well one more thing."

"Yes?"

"You know how I specialized in medicine?" I nodded in response. "I did research on reversing an erased memory and the effects of dark energy on humans."

I calmly placed my face into my palm and mumbled, "please tell me you didn't hurt yourself."

"I didn't exactly hurt myself..." She had an ear to ear grin on her face when she spoke.

"You hurt other people," I slightly smiled as I shook my head.

"Hey! It wasn't my fault, they knew the complications," Lana exclaimed.

"I bet you experimented with sableye," I responded, "and you released a bunch of psychotic pranksters out into the world causing mischief and mayhem."

"Yeah so?" Lana countered. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Nothing," I replied, imagining a bunch of humans acting like sableye and sableye acting like humans. That was how dark-type interactions worked, they required much bonding and in the end it resulted in the trainer and Pokemon becoming similar personalities. The mental image of a sableye eating a steak with a napkin and silverware amused me. I let out a brief chuckle.

"You thought of a sableye eating steak peacefully with a napkin tied around his neck and a fork and knife didn't you?" Lana smiled mischievously.

"How did you know?" I asked.

"Side-effects," she kept that the same unnerving smile.

"Of ?"

"Working with psychics," she replied.

Fuck.

"Just kidding," she giggled, "you should've seen your face..."

Right after that, our dinner came and we ate in silence, only due to the fact that we were hungry as hell. We finished our large steak abnormally quick before resumed talking.

"So what's your plan to change the world?" asked Lana before she quickly smiled when she saw my hesitation. "You don't have one, do you?"

"No, not really," I responded and she was about to say something. However I said, "well I do have one but uh... It's nothing special... I won't change it either."

"Aw can I at least see it?" Lana smiled as she tugged on my hands. I nodded and I dug in my back pocket for it; I gave it to her as she ready it quickly, when she finished, she nearly burst out laughing. I honestly did not find it that funny. "Are you serious?" She managed to ask while she tried to suppress her laughter.

"Yes," I answered.

* * *

_SC_

* * *

We decided to the top of the valley that overlooked the tremendous lake, the sight was amazing. I knew it would be, between all of the dim fiery lights and the moon's reflection off of the lake. We found a secluded place, an open clearing that provided us a clear view of the stars. Looking into the night sky made me feel miniscule; I was just some human on a small planet in the whole universe. I shared my thoughts with Lana and she agreed.

"Hey Marshall, do you want to see my other Pokemon?" She asked randomly after a few minutes of silence.

"Sure, why not?" I replied, and she fished into her ball for more pokeballs. This time she pulled out three, Nixie was in the Pokemon center with Titan and the other two were healing.

"Kanto was my first region," said Lana as three forms exited their balls in a blinding fashion. "But I do have others from Hoenn - not as strong though."

"His name is Thor," Lana said as she pointed to the black and yellow humanoid figure, yet slightly feline.

The creature was covered in yellow fur with black stripes, with the torso one shaped like a lightning bolt. It had a long, cat-like tail capable of swatting down pidgeotto, which were somewhat hefty birds. The three toes on the creature's feet were orientated alike that of a bird's foot, but its hands were similar to mine human. It also had two sharp fangs and a pair of antennae.

"Her name is Ruby," said Lana when she glanced at the fox Pokémon.

Her fox was covered with a thick, luxurious golden-white fur, which had a special ability that made it immune to other fire-attacks. Its nine tails, each of which was tipped with orange, had a mythical ability that curses any who touched it. They also had a fluffy crest atop their heads and a similar ruff around their necks. It had glistening ruby eyes, which was what I assumed Lana to name it after -her eyes, that were said to give them the power of mind control. They can also live up to one thousand years; however sicknesses and apex Pokémon prevented that from happening.

"Last one is Majestic," said Lana as the bird cooed when she ruffled the feathers.

It bared striking resemblance to Pidgeotto, with its black eye markings and raptor-shaped skull; however, it was noticeably larger than it's pre-evolution. Its plumage was larger and glossier, but it became more noticeable with age. Its feathers on its head-crest were nearly as long as its body, and are yellow and red; although there some reported cases of orange, pink, and a faded purple. Its tail feathers are red colored. Like its previous evolutions, its underbelly was a tan color.

"The two others are at the Pokemon center right now," Lana added. "Can I see Dante?"

I grabbed the ball on my belt and called the devil charizard out, "Sure."

He came and puffed smoke at her, his signature greeting with someone familiar. I heard rustling in the bushes and the Pokemon immediately took guard. Lana's composure was completely unshaken, she calmly said, "No need to worry it's probably some Pokemon or something."

However felt it was something entirely different. "I don't think so," I whispered into her ear.

"Well what do you think it is?" questioned Lana, almost defiantly. It sounded more like a human footsteps rather than one of a wild Pokémon. Wild Pokémon would waste no energy in trying to muffle their sounds, and the rustling noise was muffled. Only two solutions, a human or an apex Pokemon.

"We need to leave," I urgently whispered once again. "Make no sudden movements."

"It's that serious?" She said as she furrowed her eyebrows.

Everything became silent, to an extent. No breathing could be heard and the rustling could be stopped. Faint sirens were heard in the distant however.

"Yes," I hissed.

It was a creature of darkness that a few meters away from us. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on its breathing; it couldn't stalk us and hold its breath at the same time.

Our Pokemon were unaware of the monster except that they could sense it, I cursed our luck. Our two night-creatures were in the Pokemon Center. It was our only efficient way of defeating this monster.

I opened my eyes and lifted my head and barely saw its matte black fur. It stood on its two legs and had a hunchback; its face was a combination of an arcanine and a mightyena. The creature had razor sharp canines and claws to match. Its black fur overshadowed its crimson fur undertones, so our other Pokemon couldn't tell the sharp distinction.

It moved once again, it was on its haunches now. It had its sights set on Lana, and was about ready to strike. Dante didn't have a fast enough reaction time to strike, neither did Lana's Pokemon if she somehow I warned her and she ordered to attack. This dark-type was blindingly fast and I didn't know if I had a fast enough reaction time, even if she right next to me.

The moment I saw it saw it leap forward, I threw Lana to the side and took the brunt of the attack. The beast took me down, grabbed me by my shoulders and was about to rip out my throat in one swift action. Just as its jaws enclosed on my throat, I wiggled my arms free from its grip and found it surprisingly heavy when I tossed it over my body. The only reason I was able to do this, because it threatened Lana and therefore me.

Nothing lived to tell the tale if something unluckily threatened my or her life.

I rolled to my feet and ordered, "Fire spin!"

The Pokemon made a sky blue barrier that deflected the stream of azure flames off into the night sky. The creature exited its bubble as the jet expired to release a cackling bolt of electricity. Dante, with his stubbornness, stood there and absorbed every bit of the thunderbolt. He was thrown into a tree a ways back, and it looked like he was out for the count. He laid there for a few seconds, sparks visibly coursing through his body. His chest was sizzling and blackened. He was not moving.

I watched Lana command her Pokemon. I, myself, hid in the shadows waiting for the perfect opportunity.

It disappeared, albeit only for a brief moments. It seemingly uncloaked itself behind Thor who was generating a thunderbolt, and Majestic was ordered to do an aerial ace. The creature, as soon as Thor released the thunderbolt through his fists, grabbed each of its arms and bent them in a way that redirected the thunderbolt to hit the bird swooping in on the dark-type. The pidgeot dropped down to the ground instantly, luckily not feeling the full effect of the electricity.

The wolf-like Pokémon placed the electabuzz into a half-nelson before picking it up in the air and viciously slamming Thor on his head - effectively knocking it unconscious. By this time, Ruby had tackled it from behind and fired a point-blank flamethrower into its face, severely injuring, revealing flesh and bone the dark-type. However it kept fighting with much more ferocity.

Somehow, Dante popped up and released an azure froth out of his mouth. Then he fell down and passed out. I quickly recalled him to prevent further injury.

It was odd.

The creature was busy dealing with Ruby. It was single-handedly taking a stand against one of Lana's more powerful Pokémon, I only assumed that because Lana's Majestic and Thor were downed, which meant it had much more experience under its belt and was once belonged to a trainer. It couldn't avoid the froth that Dante spat, the dark-type screamed in pain as the substance burned through its fur and melted its flesh. It wasn't a pretty wound.

Even with the burn, the Pokémon managed to put up its cyber-like protective bubble to prevent any attacks. This time the Pokemon were ready for any attack the creature might have thrown at us.

When the attacks subsided, the dark-type's barrier dissipated and it launched a beam of darkish aura out its mouth. Even if the Pokemon, also myself and Lana, were ready for it - there was no way Lana could humanly dodge the dark pulse between the distance and the rate it was going. Her Pokémon were too focused on the attacker and themselves not their trainer. So when I realized the creature aim was Lana, I charged it - I was the closest.

Just after the beam hit Lana, I leaped into the air, looking like superman, all the while activating my hidden blades and crashed down on it. I straddled the creature and went berserk. It was yelping and screaming as I repeatedly buried my daggers into its chest. It was dead - far, far away from the realm of the living. I glanced down at myself and realized I was drenched in its blood. I shook my head and staggered to my feet.

Ruby was nuzzling Lana, and I could tell she was badly injured. I sprinted over to her, knelt down and caressed her hair with one hand and placed my other on her abdomen for support when I picked up her head. I asked, "how bad?"

She didn't answer.

In response, I shook her head gently, hoping that would elicit a response. It didn't. I wasn't worried, not yet anyway. However I wished when I took her pulse; she would still have one. I placed my fingers carefully on her neck, with my heart beating erratically. I found out my answer; however, it didn't mean I enjoyed it.

There was no pulse.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Then There Was Two

I calmed myself, because I thought I had made a mistake when I took Lana's pulse. Maybe my blood was pumping too fast, maybe my heart was pounding too hard, maybe I was shaking too much, maybe my head made it seem that there was no pulse.

Or maybe...it was just all in my head.

I took multiple deep breaths. Once again I gently placed my fingers on her throat.

I breathed a sigh of relief when there was a pulse, albeit extremely false. I noticed that her chest rose and lowered, although it was ever so slightly. It wouldn't be any longer if I continued with my inaction.

I returned all of her Pokemon to theirs balls before I lifted Lana by her back and the backs of her knees. I shifted her deadweight to my shoulders to carry her like a soldier carrying out the wounded.

I ran... And ran... And ran...

I didn't know how long I ran to get to the hospital, where it was luckily situated near the Pokemon Center. It seemed like forever, though. I rushed her into the ER and thankfully they didn't waste any time. I waited in the waiting room for what seemed, once again, like forever.

A nurse walked up to me and gave me both good and bad news. The good part was that she was in stable condition; the bad news was that she had to stay in the hospital for a few days because of testing. The nurse said that if the dark pulse hit her any further up, she wouldn't have made it. It was a miracle that she lived.

I thanked Arceus that she survived. I would have no way to control my anger or temperament if Lana had died. Losing Sophia was bad enough.

I walked back to the Pokemon Center a few blocks down the street, still worrying. Why I felt any of these feelings tonight was a big mystery to me. I didn't understand them. Entering the lobby, both Titan and Nixie laid atop each other snoozing.

I walked past them and up to the nurse on shift. I asked her if Lana had a room for the night. Unfortunately, Joy said no. I then told her that I was battling the leader in a few days. She informed me that I had a free room and dining in the Pokemon Center until I had my match; it was like this in every city with a gym. She then gave me a key to a double bed room. I thanked her before jogging over to the larvitar and absol.

I whistled and they immediately woke up. I quickly explained to Nixie that her owner was injured but she could follow me. The room was fairly easy to find, just down the hall from the nurse's desk. Instead of cleaning myself before sleep, I staggered to the bed and collapsed onto it.

SC

Heavy knocks woke me from my sleep. Yawning, I rose to my feet and lumbered towards the door. I glanced out the small eye-hole and saw two surprising figures outside my doorway. One left late last night and the other was supposed to be in a the hospital.

"Get ready and be ready to go for a hike in fifteen minutes," barked Ash, giving me no time to argue or ask questions. "I'll tell you why later."

I quickly readied myself for a long day and had a minimal yet efficient breakfast. Before I walked out, Nurse Joy luckily reminded me of Dante. I thanked her before I trotted out of the lobby.

I met the duo of Ash and Lana outside the Pokemon Center, both Titan and Nixie following me. Once we were on our way, Ash began explaining like he said he would. "The Pokemon you killed last night was a zoroark," he stated. "It's a Pokemon from a region thousands of miles away from here. It's farther than Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Orre combined."

From what I heard about it, they were a lot better off. Not having to deal with a constant war in the regions in the Pokemon Nation (the original four core regions plus the Orange Islands and Orre).

"The news reporters assume that it was either disowned by its trainer or rebelled. It was an older Pokemon that had adapted to its environment, becoming the apex predator in this area," Lana added.

"However, since that was just a brief investigation and the two of you had an actual experience to it, I think it warrants an in-depth investigation," resumed Ash. "Meaning that we need to look for its den and more of its fur, along with tracking its footprints."

"Why?" I questioned. Even if I did like additional information at times when I was curious, I preferred cutting to the chase.

"Zoroark do not attack humans or other formidable foes unless provoked; they aren't exactly tough so they either like to scavenge or feast on smaller Pokemon like pikachu or rattata. Either that or their cubs were nearby," Ash answered. "The zoroark you killed was proven to be a male, so protecting offspring was out of the question. So, both reasons are off the table."

"So, you're saying that its trainer ordered it to attack us and that is why we're going to investigate the area?" I asked as I finally understood the reason why. Now the question was who was this person?

"To see if it is true or not; yes," Ash replied.

With his conversation with me coming to end, he picked up the pace and caught up with the trio of Lana's absol, my tyranitar and his raichu. Since every Pokemon was over a decade old, meaning they were entering their prime soon, I assumed they were boasting about their achievements. Except Nixie, who always kept to herself from what I remembered.

"How did you get out of the hospital?" I questioned whilst keeping my focus on the Pokemon and now the old man.

"I have my ways," beamed Lana.

"You just have Ash," I said, sighing as I shook my head. I should've known that.

"So?" she replied with a sassy attitude and crossed arms, giving me a small smirk. "I would've found a way out."

"Uh-"

"Shut up," said Lana, cutting off any rebuttal that I would've come up with.

She should've known that I was terrible at comebacks, as in insults not Pokemon matches. One of the few things I wasn't exactly the best at. Another was dancing.

"But I wasn't going to say anything..." I tried my best to frown but my expression stayed the same. Trying to make any sort of facial expression other than raising my eyebrows resulted in me looking scarier than normal, which many people say was a scowl. Well, that was the reactions that people gave me anyway.

"You were," she replied and I simply shrugged my shoulders.

"By the way," I began, "how did you recover so fast from the dark pulse?"

"Do you ever listen to a word I say?" she teased, or that was what I thought. I never could tell between her serious comments or when she was teasing.

"What do you mean?" I inquired.

"Remember when I told you I have been working with dark type Pokemon?" I nodded in response. She continued, "Well, between that, and since I was naturally attuned to dark energy, the side effects were minimal. However, if the pulse hit me any higher I wouldn't have been able to survive as the energy would've been concentrated on my heart."

"Ah," I said with a nod, understanding almost everything. Except, I never understood becoming attuned to a specific-type of Pokemon.

"Stop by Professor Will's lab, son of Professor Bill, in Cerulean if you want to learn more about becoming attuned to Pokemon," Ash piped up. "Lana thinks she knows but she doesn't."

She pouted. "Not true."

By the reactions of both of them, her recovery was not only accelerated by her attuning to dark-types, but something else as well. And they were not ready to share it, either. I guess I had to find out on my own. With that, the conversation reduced to things we had observed during our trek to the scene.

However, I kept bringing up how I should alter the course that the world was currently headed on. They kept telling me not to focus on my sister's supposed killer or who was responsible. I needed to put it behind me and focus on stopping the future apocalypse, they said. I argued that there was no way I was going to do what the higher-ups wanted without fulfilling my own quest for redemption. I could have cared less what brought the end of the world if I didn't get what I wanted. Both of them became silent after they realized I couldn't change my train of thought.

I would've changed my mind or at least taken their thoughts into consideration, but they didn't give me any valid ideas. Besides the rough plan that me and Ash came out up, I had the goals of taking the Elite Four and that Celebi down. They were pretty important and, from what I heard, corrupt. The Elite Four, anyway. I never heard of a shapeshifting Celebi until Ash had told me when he said that Sophia had died. Until I achieved those two goals, I wouldn't serve the higher-ups.

It took us a few hours. Between all of the people, there seemed to be an influx of refugees, and the uphill climb.

When we arrived at the scene the body of the zoroark was out of sight. Ash plucked a pokeball off his belt and enlarged it so a Pokemon could escape. Out of the ball came out a larger version of Lana's Majestic, instead of having a basic red and yellow head-crest, it had a wider array of colors such as indigo and violet. To me, the Pokemon seemed like it was in the late stages of its prime, the mid to late-teens. Once the pidgeot fully formed, his aged raichu returned to its ball on its own accord.

Ash had a solemn expression on his face when he jumped atop of his pidgeot. We weren't actually investigating; in fact, it was never in the plan. I assumed it was just a cover-up just in case anyone decided to eavesdrop on us. It must've been extremely important to drag us out here covertly.

"Marshall, I presume you already realized that this was just a ploy, so I don't need to explain my reasoning for that particular action," Ash said, "but you don't know why we're out here. Rumor has it that the Renegade is closing in on Viridian. He took out two small villages, one town, and a small fort to the northwest, with the last site being twenty miles away. He took out your hometown, Marshall. It was bigger than Viridian and it is ruins now. As you can see..."

Ash pointed out to the horizon, showing bands of refugees flocking down the opposite hill through the small openings in the canopy.

"Survivors are either marching towards Viridian or Pewter. We're still not sure the motives of The Renegade yet. Sometimes he destroys towns and decimates the population, while other times he suppresses any Orre or Orange Islands movements against either Kanto or Johto. A few times he kills off Team Rocket charity organizers and, one time, it was witnessed that he had rescued a little girl and her meowth from being kidnapped. The best lead we have is between him and Team Rocket... And Team Rocket has major operations in Viridian, Saffron, and Cinnabar."

"You think he is going to attack here?" I asked. Ash he nodded. "What do you want us to do? Run away? Counterattack? Recruit him?"

"I want you and Lana to head to Pewter City," he said. "I already told Lana what to do. All you need to do is follow her."

"And what are you going to do?" I questioned and he gave me a weak smile. I didn't like leaving when I could recruit a valuable asset to assist me in my quest for revenge. From what I heard, he had a grudge or something against Team Rocket when I heard nothing but bad things from them when I eavesdropped on various conversations in the city. For instance, they help supply food for the homeless. I wondered if he thought I wasn't ready to meet The Renegade yet.

"Survive," he said, "but promise me one thing?"

"Yes?"

"Survive."


	5. Chapter 5

**Update: 22 April 2013**

**I decided to recombine the two chapters back into one**

Anyway thanks for reading and hope that you enjoy this.

Chapter 5: Viridian Forest

Lana and I exited the Viridian City western outskirts roughly an hour after Ash had left us. We turned up north, and stayed fairly close to the rocky terrain and the fences. There was a nice path, the sun shined on us through the fluffy clouds that occasionally passed over head. There was no forest canopy overtop, not yet.

We only left our absol and larvitar out for protection, seeing as weren't even at the beginning at the forest. Reaching the entrance to the forest at sun down, we decided to set up a make-shift camp for the night.

Adding Ruby and Dante to the mix-up provided warmth for the both of us and extra protection, not that we needed it with Nixie and Titan. We fell asleep quickly due to exhaustion and the comfort between ourselves and the soft silky fur of the ninetails.

The next morning, we destroyed the camp we had made so we couldn't be tracked as easy. There was a sudden cutoff between the realm of the forest and outside it. It felt like it was a supernatural feeling. I asked, "Who do we need out? Having everyone out would be too cumbersome."

"Titan, Ruby, Dante and Majestic for sure," she said as she enlarged the two pokeballs in her hands by pressing the little button. I nodded. "And Nixie."

"I don't think we need anyone else," I suggested as I called out my two Pokemon and she did the same. I plucked my war club hanging off my belt and ordered, "Dante take our three, Titan take our six. Pick off any bug or anything that comes within fifteen feet of us."

Both Pokemon moved to their respective positions as Lana gave her Pokemon orders, "Nixie help out Dante on our three. Ruby take my side and Majestic take the lead. Same thing, take out anything that comes within fifteen feet. "

Taking a deep breath, holding before exhaling it, we glanced at each other and nodded. This was not a walk in the park; any mistake would result in something terrible. We can't lose our minds and the forest was effective in driving people insane with its dense air, no sun and the dim light.

We took our first step into the forest, Ruby and Dante immediately sprayed fire at the trees ahead. I didn't know if there were already Pokemon there or if it was just a warning shot.

I didn't know what was worse, bugs or snakes. Obviously, snake wranglers and bug maniacs we're worse than the actual Pokemon. However, the odds of me encountering a snake wranglers AND a bug maniac were slim to none. Meeting one was already small.

Knowing myself, I'd probably wander into pods of kakuna who were about to free themselves and then fall into a pit of snakes trying to escape the new beedrill.

The light behind us kept dimming until there was no direct light, and that meant we had no idea how to tell how many days has passed because our electronics did not work. In the forest, everyone was on their own.

Everything in the forest was continuous, there was no differentiation. Trees were gigantic; the roots were irksome to step over as well as the thorny bushes, and not to mention the vines, some of which resembled a snake, that wrapped around every single tree. The repetition was another factor as to why people lose their minds; it felt like we were staying in the same place - walking in the same spot. We could only tell the difference between night and day due to the dropping temperature.

While walking, Lana mostly filled me in on the current events of the world, even more so than Ash - well more detailed and more trivial things. Supposedly, the goal was to make me fit into society.

... I thought I was perfectly fine.

Dante was quick to fire, before I even saw the caterpie or weedle, he had incinerated it. However, I thought it was just Nixie helping him out. She rarely exerted any of her energy, but she would take the lead when Majestic decided to eat all of the bugs in front of us. I didn't pay much attention to Titan, other than pointing out rock that he liked.

We made three stops, with the third being last. All of them were so we could rejuvenate ourselves from the tiring walking.

Once again, we made a fire in order to heat our food and provide warmth. As much as it did to do us well, it sparked more paranoia because of the shadows. To me, it looked like a praying mantis about the size of myself, but with bladed forearms. It appeared to be looking down on us from the branch overhead, but when I looked up it wasn't there.

This happened quite a few times, and I saw an actual human shadow with a net and it did the same thing - when I looked, he wasn't there. I didn't get a hostile feeling, it more so they were looking over us. It provoked my curiosity but it wasn't a good idea to follow them. Instead, I asked Lana if she felt or saw the same thing.

"Yeah," she agreed and called for her bird. Changing the topic, she said, "I think it takes a week to get through the forest on foot, too bad that Majestic can't carry more than one person."

"I kind of figured that," I said as she ruffled the pidgeot's feathers whilst cooing. "She looks smaller than an average sized one."

"She is," responded Lana with the smile she always wore. "However she makes up for it for being quicker and more agile."

"It looks like most of your Pokemon are smaller than the average," I noted when I glanced at her Pokemon. "Except Thor, he's a big guy."

"Uh-huh," she nodded, seemingly zoning out for a reason I couldn't figure out.

Then there was a creepy silence that dawned over us. Silence between humans was one of the few things anyone wanted, every sound was amplified. I could hear slithering, gargling and squishing sounds, howling, among other natural noises. Needless to say they weren't pleasant. They were sounds that would drive one mad if they listened to it for a long time.

"We need to get to sleep," she mumbled. Wordlessly, she threw me an extra sleeping bag, something that I didn't have and I felt it was waste to carry those. However, I accepted it. She then nestled herself into her own sleeping bag, and that was when I became worried. Her entire demeanor just suddenly switched.

I wondered if she has ever been mentally tested, I wasn't questioning her insanity but her mental strength. She had to have some mental toughness to have survived two years of attaining ten badges.

Knowing that the night was only to get colder, I could achieve two things with my next action; one, more warmth and two, to reassure Lana. Silently, I stood up and walked behind Lana with my walking bag. I rolled the sleeping bag out and that when she groggily asked, "What are you doing?"

However I kept silent, and proceeded. I laid down beside her and placed my arm over her abdomen, "It's going to get colder."

I just knew that she was smiling, or at least ever so slightly. She didn't make noises of disapproval, and in fact, she placed her arm over mine.

She was warm and soft.

* * *

_SC_

* * *

When I woke up, I noticed two things. The first was Lana's face was buried into my chest, and the second was I still felt something watching us. "Hey," I said softly.

Knowing each other so well, we didn't need to explain ourselves. She simply shook her head, and replied, "no."

"Come on," I rocked her gently. "We need to move."

"What time is it?" I was about to check my pokedex for the time but alas, I momentarily forgot that electronics with any sort of satellite function doesn't work in the forest.

"I'm..." Looking up into the sky didn't work either as it had the same twilight look - an eerie mix of yellow and silver. "Not sure."

"Can't we just stay here?" she whined.

"If you want to stay in a place infested with bugs, snakes, and arceus knows what else," I suggested, "then be my guest. Plus, it means we would stay in here longer too. "

That got her up. She jumped to her feet and recalled her other Pokemon, Thor and her chansey, and left the main four out for protection. Both of my Pokemon looked like they got plenty of rest. After packing our sleeping bags and eating breakfast, we headed towards Pewter once again.

The same thing happened as yesterday; we kept a keen eye towards for any movement in the darkness. Dante became more accurate and more energetic about killing the bugs. He always stuck his tongue out at either Titan or Ruby. Ruby cared less, but Titan smirked and stomped the ground - making bugs and other Pokemon fall out of the tree, dead. Dante scowled at him.

We kept noticing the same scyther and man shadows, and unknowingly we followed them. We didn't even notice that we were heading eastward because of the repetition of the forest.

Leading us towards a clearing with many pods hanging down from the trees, the man and the scyther finally appeared.

Then sun had shined down on the clearing, making everything brighter and causing us to shield our eyes. In the middle, there was a lone wooden cabin that looked liken it was made long ago. When we stepped out further into the clearing, both I and Lana realized what was stored in the silky pods and who made them.

Humans.

And they were being liquefied due to the poison of a weedle or any other poisonous bug in the vicinity. I wondered how a man could control bugs to do that without attacking himself.

Lana gasped, and I made no expression other than stepping out in front of her and unsheathing my war club. All of our Pokemon appeared to be ready to fight.

"I mean no harm," the man said in a raspy voice whilst raising his arms. Shakily, he pointed to the pods, "those... aren't innocents."

"How do I know that you aren't lying?" I questioned as there was a 'plip' sound. I realized that a pod above me was dripping blood, or guts maybe both. In fact, every pod was, and the only way we could avoid them was if we moved in closer to the man dressed in torn camouflage sweats. He wasn't older than thirty.

He cackled, "Look closely."

I did so, and I realized they weren't normal humans.

They had fangs and scaly skin. Not only that, they had yellow beady eyes.

"What are they?" I questioned.

Lana had an answer, "they were part of the arbok clan living in the forest. They are a group of people that have attributes of an arbok or other snakes because they spend so long together and they grow in unison. They evolved and adapted together."

"Yes," the man agreed. "Just like I am with bugs but I am a first generation."

"That means no in your family is attuned to bugs?" questioned I. He nodded.

"He share strengths with bugs but not all of them and the same with their weaknesses," Lana added. "Second generation and younger have more similar traits and they are more noticeable."

"Correct," he said.

"What I am wondering," I began, "is why you made us follow you? You know the forest messes with people's mind."

"Come inside," the man said as he pointed to the cabin. He then introduced himself, "my name is Dane."

We warily followed him into the cabin. Surprisingly the inside was neat and clean, nothing out of place or grungy. He took off the straw hat he was wearing, and placed it carefully, along with his net, on a hat hanger.

Dane led us into a dining room and disappeared into the kitchen. While he was in there, Lana mouthed - _Be ready for anything_.

I nodded as he came back with a tea cups and a tea pot. Dane placed three cups on the table and filled each. Sensing the hesitation, he was the first to take a sip of the tea.

"I said, I meant no harm," he said normally. He reached into his back pocket, and showed us identification. "As you can see, I work for the Pokemon League and I am a league champion."

He looked out the window, and gloomily said, "The league sent me here to protect any travelers from entering the Arbok clan territory."

"Don't you get lonely?" questioned Lana as she took a sip of the tea, first smelling it to see if there was any type of poison and then she touched the top with the tip of her tongue. Finally, she deemed it safe.

"Geez! You still don't trust me?" He exclaimed before he simmered down. "Anyway... yes."

"Yes," we both answered.

"I suppose that is a good thing - not trusting anyone even if they showed you identification," he commented. "Keep it up, it might save your life one day."

"Yeah," Lana sheepishly said. "It already did once."

I raised my eyebrow, and made a mental note to bring that up later.

"May I know your names?" he asked.

"He's Marshall," Lana said whilst pointing to me, "and I'm Lana."

"Are you two-?"

We both knew what he was about to ask when he started. Everyone asked that.

"No," so we answered simultaneously.

"Hey," said Dane as he raised his hands, whilst trying to be funny. "What you do is none of my business."

Not finding his remark remotely funny, we gave him blank stares.

"Okay," he began, "what I want you two do is continue heading east until you get to an intersection of two streams. Then head north and you'll be safe... well safer than what you two originally had planned. Anything north to northwest of here is in their territory."

"Got it," I said as we began to leave.

"Can I ask you something, Dane?" asked Lana.

"Sure, why not?" Dane shrugged his shoulders as he put on his hat and grabbed the net.

"Isn't what you're doing to the clan members just as bad as what they do to travelers? They do it for food, to survive," Lana questioned his actions and morals. "_You don't_."

Dane stood there without showing any aggression or pain.

"You say you do it for protection, but do you really? The amount of members out there is more than what people need for protection. I'd say you either do it for food or fun. Both are not very good reasons and you're just as bad as them."

He gave out a heavy sigh, surprisingly without any sign of anger. Not acting like he was better than everyone else because he was a league champion. "I suppose you're right, I do eat them. I am like them and am bad as them but the thing is," he paused, "I don't kill innocent travelers _and I don't do it for fun._ Only those who I perceive as villainous. Sometimes I kill others out of self-defense, but everyone, no matter who you are, has the instinct to fight back when you're on the verge of death."

Lana's entire demeanor dropped, she was about to chew him out but his words calmed her right down. "Sorry," she uttered. She must've thought that she hit a soft spot.

"You're different," I said. I had very good reasoning for that.

"No shit," he replied.

"No, most of the people I know in the position you're in would've threatened her because she questioned you. People in power are often overzealous and cocky," I stated. "You're not."

"Thank you," said Dane, "I guess."

"We need to get going if we want to keep on schedule," Lana tugged on my arm as she said that. I wondered what she was worried about.

"Alright well," I began, "it was nice meeting a bug maniac on the side of good."

"Hah," he chuckled, "likewise with you two dark specialists."

He had eyes all of the forest because of the bugs he commanded, so I wasn't too surprised when he said that.

Before we exited the small cabin, he gave us one final warning, "Be wary of the shadows. Only follow my scyther's, Kohana, shadow. Anything else, you need to get the hell out of there.

"Got it."

* * *

_SC_

* * *

I saw the scyther that Dane had disappeared into the forest, heading east. All of our Pokemon immediately fell into formation when we had begun following Kohana.

"Why did you want to get out of there, Lana?" inquired I.

"I felt like we couldn't overstay our welcome," she gave me a valid reply. I agreed because it was much easier to attack us than to climb into the trees for his dinner.

The scyther kept going ahead before making himself visible to us, and then he vanished. The same process had repeated itself as yesterday, our Pokemon would obliterate any bug that as so looked at us. We only stopped twice, once for a late lunch, the tea had given us energy and suppressed our hunger and the other for the night. Still, I felt the scyther watching over us.

I found it odd that he didn't say anything about us killing the bugs; I figured that what we had killed was only a minute fraction of the total population.

We kept the same sleeping arrangement as yesterday, but this time Ruby snuggled up between us. Providing extra warmth, I presumed it was her turn to take the late shift. It was a smart idea to teach the Pokemon how to keep watch and use shifts.

The morning routine was the same as yesterday, we continued on towards the intersection of the two streams. There, I presumed that we would lose Kohana as a guide. After arriving at the intersection fairly quickly, Kohana bid us a fair-well and pointed to which stream we should follow. It nodded and departed to return to its master.

I and Lana continued on, being wary of the shadows. Now, no shadows were safe.

Lana abruptly stopped, staring at something. She mumbled and pointed at it, "that isn't good."

I looked at what she looking at, it was a body of a human - teenager was my guess. He leaned against the tree, barely breathing and he clutched his side with much anguish. I called, "Hey!"

The boy looked up at me, both me and Lana jogged over to him. When we got closer, we realized that he was part of the clan but wasn't as adapted. He didn't have the same beady eyes, fangs, or scaly skin as the others. He was as normal as me or Lana.

With his other hand, he fished into his bag and threw me a gun. "Melee weapons don't work and ..." he weakly said before falling into his lap. I personally thought it was pitiful, almost something to laugh at but alas it was real life and the person died.

"And?" Lana asked but it was too late and she bit her lips. I hoped that it wasn't anything important.

My guess was that his clan probably ostracized him and left him to die because he wasn't as evolved as the others. I looked down at the gun, it wasn't what I preferred but I knew how to use it. Checking how many bullets there was left; I realized I had to make every single of the five count.

I just wondered where the hell a kid acquired a fifty caliber desert eagle.

After kneeling down, I carefully moved the kid's arm to reveal his wound. It looked an arbok had buried its fangs deep into his abdomen. I looked up to Lana and said, "We need to move."

So we did.

After a while, we slowed our pace but soon we eventually decided that we should turn in for the night.

The next morning when I opened my eyes, I was frightened. Shadows were everywhere, they neither humans nor Kohana. Well one looked like a praying mantis but I wasn't sure. I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me, just assuming that help is there when its not. I didn't think that either of us could handle any longer, with the constant threat and having frost forming over our bodies during the night.

I gently nudged Lana but for the second time this week, she shook her head. I guessed that she knew not to say anything and she heard the hissing and the slithering. Arbok or ekans weren't exactly quiet creatures.

Without wanting to make sudden or big movements, I couldn't tell if our Pokemon were aware of the threat and Ruby had left in the middle of the night.

I slowly rolled onto my back and looked up into the trees. There were three targets, two arbok and one ekans. They glared at me, and I stared right back. They hissed, I remained quiet and made no movement of aggression or fear. They bared their fangs, I kept glaring. They swayed back and forth with their hoods displayed fully; I still made no other action.

The three reptiles slowly slithered down the trees, closing in on their pray. I didn't move or exude any sort of fear in hopes that they would hesitate and fortunately, they did. Out my peripherals, I noticed that most of our Pokemon were unaware of the threat as they were either sleeping or were focused on keeping away bugs. When I focused my sight back on the enemy, I saw two purplish-black lights in the form of scythes... help was here.

The snakes kept sliding down, and by the time they were at the last branch, the scythes were pure black. The reptiles coiled themselves so they we would have less time to react but that didn't matter at all. Kohana dropped down onto the two arbok, impaling their hoods before ripping skyward through their skulls, creating a sickening crunch and pop in the process. That was what I thought what happened as I only saw the green blur and the two arbok thumping the ground, moving around for a good ten seconds before going limp. Few seconds later after the arboks dropped, three more purple blurs fell to the ground - except it was all one snake.

Kohana dropped to the ground whilst clashing his weapons with another as a way to rid the indigo blood and I rocked Lana before saying, "It's safe now."

I looked around at the carnage that the scyther created in roughly five seconds and found it cool but appetite-killing. Lana, however, wanted to throw up at the sight. We both glanced at Kohana; unfortunately it had an expression on its face and body that displayed urgency. It waved its scythes wildly; we assumed that it wanted us to follow him quickly.

We swiftly rose and called back our Pokemon, barring Ruby who was among the fastest and hardest hitting we had, so we could move faster. Looking at Kohana when we were ready, it bolted eastwards. The scyther slowed itself down considerably not using its wings that makes the thing so arceus-damn fast, we still had trouble following it due the rough undergrowth.

After a good minute of straight sprinting, we slowed down to a jog and that was when Kohana made wild turns. After a while, I figured out that we were trying to erase our scents and fool our chasers that I didn't know we had. The scyther went in circles around the streams before heading up more and doing the same thing. We did this at a medium-paced jog so we don't burn ourselves out for later.

Sometime later, Kohana realized that we were close to passing out and so he led us into a small den a little way off the stream. Lana released Thor from his ball as a light source as he turned an iridescent blue when there was no light. However, he only lit up a small area - just enough for us not to trip over any uneven ground.

A few moments later, we heard loud hissing coming from, not outside like people would expect, but from deep inside the cavern. Then, insane cackling worse than what Dane emitted. We basically all had the same reaction.

Crap.

* * *

_SC_

* * *

"I would say, _We need get of here_, but I think it's obvious," I stated as I turned back towards the entrance which suddenly appeared closed. "Well this certainly-"

"Sucks," Lana finished my sentence. "Either we lost the entrance or something blocked it off."

"I think something is blocking the light from seeping through," I said as I walked forward a little bit," because I was able to see the light from here before."

Once again, we heard the hissing and insane cackling echo throughout the cave, making it difficult to determine where it is coming from. "Lana call out your Pokemon," I said as I saw multiple red lights appear, I copied her.

"I think we should start moving back towards the entrance so we don't have to worry about our backs," Lana suggested as she started walking forward.

Seeing as we only turned around once and Kohana was still out in front, I didn't question what way we had to go. Between the lights produced by Thor and Dante, we saw shadows of smaller snakes, not the large ones like arbok. We quickly became paranoid, Kohana didn't have the element of surprise he had when he was in the trees.

I wondered when I should use the gun that the fallen snake-boy gave me; I didn't want to use the five bullets too early in case something bigger and badder appeared later. Eventually I decided I would use it on the crazy snake guy at the end of the cave.

We thought we arrived at the entrance because hit a wall, but we carefully examined the wall and realized that it was not the entrance due to the ceiling was lower to the ground. The hissing and cackling became louder instead of quieter like we thought would happen which gave us another indication.

Suddenly, Kohana waved his arms and began to walk towards the right; we assumed that it was safer if we followed him. However after a few minutes, I started to get a bad feeling and I told Lana that. She shrugged it off by saying that I was just getting paranoid and I never liked caves. It was true that I hated being in cramped spaces like a cave where there was no way to run, but paranoia in a place like this was perfectly understandable. I thought that was odd - telling me not to be paranoid when she couldn't face the snakes from early.

Soon after I had said that, Kohana started picking up his pace. Even if we were completely worn out and ready to give in, both of us had to keep pace to survive. When we first started in this direction, the noises became further and farther... now, now it felt like they were right behind us. We transitioned from a medium-paced jog to a full-out sprint.

We finally saw light beaming down a hundred yards away, which we thought was an exit, but unfortunately for us, the plan of the snakes came out into fruition. Ekans and arboks alike slithered in daylight down the exit towards; there were snakes behind us and overhead. Essentially, we were trapped.

Why did we have to stumble upon a cave invested with dangerous snakes that could kill us humans with a single bite?

While coming to a complete halt, our opponents did too. It was if they were mirroring us. I think we all knew that our only way out was if we fought and either made them retreat or kill them all.

In their brief hesitation, we attacked.

"Titan and Thor! Bring down the ceiling behind us!" I commanded. The electabuzz sprinted a few yards before stepping on the larvitar to propel himself towards the ceiling with his arm emanating an orange-like aura. Thor hit the ceiling with tremendous force creating a long crack in the ceiling.

Just as the electabuzz landed, Titan stomped, raising multiple pillars of earth that reached the ceiling, before stomping once more to send them racing towards where we just came from.

One pillar struck the focal point of the indentation that Thor had made. It tore through the cracked ceiling quite similar to if I had a scalpel in my hand performing an autopsy on a cadaver. Large chunks of the ceiling collapsed down on the incoming wave of snakes, with the sounds of hissing and squishing piercing my ears.

Needless, to say I nearly wanted to vomit.

The other pillars had not been sent, as they were used as support to prevent the ceiling crashing down on us.

We had successfully eliminated one front of attack, as now there were four fronts instead of five - twelve o'clock, the two flanks and the ceiling.

"Titan, crush anything on the right side of us," I commanded.

"Ruby and Thor, leave no trace of their bodies," Lana ordered.

The next sequence of events transpired rather swiftly. Ruby and Thor wasted no time in charging their attacks before exhaling a mighty combination of a paralyzing yet frying beam of electricity and a jet of flames that could nearly melt metal. There was a brief second of hissing but they were soon silenced. Titan on the other hand simply created another wall and sent it towards the right flank. Anything in the space between the newly created wall and actual wall was made into a pancake.

"Titan... Now take care of the foes on the ceiling," I calmly said as the larvitar stomped the ground once more as several spiked pillars were raised. The spikes traveled upwards and impaled any enemy on the ceiling.

In a matter of moments, we were fighting on one front, but we were still trapped and outmanned.

"What's the plan now?" Lana questioned nervously as the snakes were roughly seventy yards away from us and they were gaining speed.

At roughly fifteen yards, they could spit hundreds of tiny poisonous needles flawlessly at their target's eyes. The needles barely hurt but nine times out of ten, the needles cause blinding. At ten yards, they can hurl up a venomous wave or a sphere, depending on what they ate, with decent accuracy and speed. The wave, sometimes sphere, consisted of sludge that is made from their diet, their venom and whatever else that was their stomach. At five yards, it was game over for a human or other smaller living thing. At that distance, they can throw up a somewhat solid chunk, although it's more like cottage cheese, of their inner lining at a great speed. The inner lining consisted of acidic venom that instantaneously burned through flesh and bone.

Anything fewer than five yards, only absolute monsters could withstand an arbok attack. Their fangs sharp enough to sink into thick hide, and their muscles, when constricted around something, can crush a steel oil drum.

"I've got one thing, and I don't think it hold them off for very long," I rubbed my chin.

"We don't have much time, you know," Lana stated the obvious.

"Yes," I nodded. "Everyone... Charge your strongest attack!"

They did, flames and electricity cackled through the air, the ground rumbled and I was pretty sure it was getting colder and windier. The attack wasn't going to kill off everything, but it sure was going to kill a lot.

I waited for a few seconds, until the snakes were around fifty yards away. "Now!" I ordered.

The first attack I saw was a shockwave of ground rippling and crushing the ground in its wake. The shockwave caused the snakes to go airborne, and that was the moment where all the special attacks made contact with the snakes.

There was a chained lightning bolt and air waves that ripped through hoods and tore off scales. I was impressed. There were five fire bombs, assumingly created by Ruby, and they were like homing missiles. Dante did a rapid fire of fireballs. The two dark pulses pierced through anything unluckily enough to get in their way.

After a few seconds, our attacks subsided. When the dust cleared, more snakes appeared. However, the amount of crisped and torn bodies lying on the ground was staggering. Both Lana and I cursed.

"Well, what do we do now?" Lana questioned. "My Pokemon barring Nixie and Ruby aren't conditioned enough for another round of their strongest attacks."

"I don't think Dante is ready for another round," I said as I looked over at the charmander whose chest was heaving up and down. "But I know Titan has a lot left in him. Too bad he isn't a tyranitar; otherwise we would've been out of here by now. He's a master in manipulating the earth."

"I know. I think the best idea right now is to recall our Pokemon except Ruby, Nixie, and Titan. That way, we don't have to worry about anyone else getting hurt," Lana said, I looked at her with cocked eyebrow. "We're getting out of here, Marshall, and I don't want anyone other but our best getting hurt."

Before I said anything to counter her, she added, "Look at them, they're in no shape to fight any further."

"What have you been doing recently? Not training." I said. I was irritated that she was a trainer that didn't train all of her Pokemon - only a select few.

"I've been researching on your sister's death among other things!" She exclaimed before taking a deep breath. "Now is not the time for arguing! Come on! Focus on a way to get us out here alive."

"Okay," I said whilst looking where they were at. The combo super-attack had pushed them back about twenty yards so that they gave us a few extra seconds. Instead of using the time to figure a plan, we bickered and now they were where they were when we attacked.

Begrudgingly, I recalled Dante before I decided on what to do. I looked at how far the ceiling was up, it was high enough for the snakes not to spring up and get us. "Call back your Pokemon Lana!"

"Why!?" She exclaimed.

"Just do it!" I commanded and she obliged rather quickly.

"Titan, get between me and Lana," I said and the larvitar sprinted on all fours to get between us. "Make a high wall ten yards away."

He stomped the ground once, and a wall rose. "Now propel us onto it."

He jumped into the air, grabbed both me and Lana's back before lifting his chin which made small pillars come underneath and propel us onto the wall. Kohana, on the other hand, sprinted and used his wings to jump onto the wall.

Lana nearly screamed. I thought it was exhilarating.

"Do it again!"

We repeated it another nine times, only because I wasn't sure of a scyther's leaping range, until we reached the end of the cavern. The snakes snapped at us from below, but they couldn't reach us. It made Lana terrified; I thought it was funny to see the creatures fail miserably to try to eat us.

When we were out of the cave, the first thing I noticed was that Kohana's eyes were glowing. Thinking back to Dane, I wondered if it had a connection. Then, I realized where all the snakes came from.

"Close the door behind us Titan," I whispered as we looked what was in front of us. The only one that didn't make a gulping noise was Kohana, only because I wasn't sure that a scyther could make that sort of noise. Titan, instead of making a grandiose noise when he stomps or punches the ground, bent down the earth and lightly planted his fist into the ground. The whole idea of a larvitar being quiet when he went to do something with earth seemed amusing to me.

I didn't know what I could someone who was beyond terrified, if there was a word for that, Lana would be that word. She was nearly frozen in fear. I admit, I was frightened by the king arbok. The man standing next to the gigantic snake wasn't even the scary. I could calmly have a cup a tea with him and talk about ponytas and bunearies.

On a normal day, I would beat the shit out of him and take his heart because he was absolutely hideous.

I would guess that he was deeply evolved. His eyes weren't in a straight-line like that of a human, they were slanted at a forty-five degree angle and beady with a golden hue. He didn't have a nose, just two slots above his mouth. Two fangs jutted out the top of his mouth, but hopefully his mouth had more teeth than that.

His skin was all purple scales, including his hair. The man's amount of fingers was normal, but they were clawed and had no roundness to them.

I didn't know what else to call him; he wasn't terrifying in the slightest. Fugly? I didn't know.

He emitted an insane cackle; it was similar to the one from before so I knew there was only one man living in this place.

I didn't know if he was pissed or not, because his face made it look he was angry all the time. Just like this one guy I knew. I assumed so; we had killed at least 95% of his mini-army. The other 5% being the king snake before us and two slightly smaller feminine snakes. Exaggeration but there was a point to be made on the size.

On average, an arbok was twelve feet long and weighed close to one hundred and fifty pounds. Double that and we had the size of each of the two feminine snakes. Triple that and minus several feet or so and that was the king snake.

Long explanation short, he was a colossus.

There was no way in hell that scyther, two humans and a well-trained larvitar could take down those behemoths.

"Marshall... Can I see that gun for a moment?" Lana asked as her paralysis faded.

I pulled the gun out of my back pocket and handed it to her, "I don't think it's going to work against them, maybe the man but definitely not the king or queens."

"Hah! Little girl! You really expect that to kill these arbok!" He exclaimed with a tone that would make everything he said amusing. It was like a high-pitched soft deepish voice with an accent. I didn't know how to explain it.

"I'm not going to use it to shoot them, I'm going use it to get someone's attention," Lana smirked as she cocked back the hammer of the desert eagle.

"Whose?" I questioned as the snakes seemingly tried to erase our souls with their glue, whilst completely ignoring his statement.

She shot it into the air without a moment's hesitation. The man simply cackled, and the snakes hissed amusingly. "Hah! Little boy why'd you give it to the girl! Do you have just as bad as aim as she does? Or are you worse? Methinks you are worse!" He cackled in a fit of laughter. I blew air out of my nose.

"The king of the forest," Lana answered barely audible

I nodded before responding to the man, "hey! You got me, but were you born like that! You know being fucking ugly!"

"I never had mirror to look at so I think I'm the most handsomest prince in all of... Where are we?" He asked.

"Kanto."

"Of course, of course. Igor is the most handsomest prince in all of Kanto!" Igor, the man's name apparently, shouted and rose his hand in triumph.

After he finished his sentence I faintly heard a rustling sound and branches breaking from in front of us. "Marshall, the king of the forest should take care of the king arbok. Kohana could take care of the one on the left and Titan could take care if the one of right if we play things correctly," Lana whispered. "Kohana, how long until the swarm and Dane get here? A few minutes?"

Kohana pointed downwards, meaning less time. "A minute?" He nodded. "Stall Igor for a minute or so. "

"Got it," I answered.

"What's your plan of action?" Igor answered. "Are you two planning to kill me? I think I'm getting pretty old and by this point, I accept whoever kills me."

"You do?" I asked. "If you were to be killed, who would you rather be killed by?"

"Certainly not either of you two! Not the scyther or the larvitar! Maybe Dane, the bug maniac? I assume you met him because you have his scyther... And you have his scent! The king of the forest is coming too? Right? Yes, I'd like to be killed by it or Dane! I've decided that! But I'm not going to kill either or you, neither are the queens. I don't want you killed, Marshall, you're too important to the world aren't you? So are you Lana! You're important too!" He ranted.

"You know our names?" I inquired with a cocked eyebrow.

"Why wouldn't I?" Igor answered.

"How did you know that we are important?" Lana questioned and I heard the humming of the swarm get closer.

"When you get to a certain age, you know things what your Pokemon know. Pokemon are more empathic and understanding to nature than humans are. They understand how life works and don't dare try to change their fate. The humans that try to escape what they are put on earth to do are what causes problems. Pokemon accept their fate, they don't try to change it. They just try to fulfill it. Right now, our fate, my Pokemon and I, is to kill Dane and the king of the jungle and to die by their hands. We can't kill the scyther or either of you, it's against what we were put on this world to accomplish," he explained with less enthusiasm from before.

"How did you know that was your fate?" Lana asked another question.

"We just do what we feel is right; I mean if it's in your instincts, why go against them? If you feel like doing something, you should do it. If you have the instinct to achieve your goal, why stop yourself? What's stopping you? My, our, goal is to kill the king of the jungle and to kill Dane," Igor paused. "Nothing is going to stop them, so why shouldn't I go through with my goal?"

"Nothing, nothing at all." I replied. "So what should we do? Just step back and watch?"

With what he just said, I assumed not. I felt like I was going to kill him, with a shot between the eyes with the desert eagle the kid gave me.

"No... You're going to do whatever you thought in your head right now," he answered ever so calmly. It was astonishing how calm and collected he was compared to early. He was right, he just accepted fate. At the end of the day, he and his Pokemon were going to be dead.

I wondered if Dane had thought the same thing.

"So when the time comes to finish my journey to save the world from imploding in on itself..." I paused, "I'm supposed to do whatever I feel is right. That would my justice, but is it really justice or it is just an illusion?"

"Justice is an illusion," he answered. "What you think is justice is the only thing that matters."

"Understood," I nodded, seemingly gaining more knowledge from him than I had from Ash. Not to say Ash didn't give me a lot of his wisdom. "Thank you."

"No need to thank me, I'm just doing my job," he simply nodded. I was glad his mouth was normal and he didn't slur his _ss_.

The moment came. Hell broke loose.

The king of the jungle appeared and Dane's swarm had shown up on both sides.

There was an emerald green blur that dragged the king arbok to the ground. It took me a second to realize that the blur was a sceptile, a fairly large one at that.

"How did you know that sceptiles are attracted to the sound of gunfire?" I was impressed with Lana's intelligence.

"Research," Lana had a coy smile on her face.

The sceptile tore through the arbok's hood without much effort at all. Its blades were covered in purple blood, and the once firm hood was now flapping with how shredded it was. The arbok didn't give up so easily, when the king went for the jugular, the arbok recollected itself and wrapped its tail, thick as a tree trunk, around the body of the sceptile.

The sceptile grunted and blood poured out of its mouth. The snake rose up and bared its fangs, all the while compressing the torso tighter. The arbok did the same as the king had did moments earlier, but this time the forest king pelted the arbok with seeds moving as fast as bullets. If the arbok's hood wasn't torn enough already, it was even more so with the many holes littered throughout it. It recoiled, and burrowed underground in a spilt second. The sceptile grabbed a hold of its tail and went along.

"Titan, close the hole and crush those two..." I ordered. The larvitar jumped up and down as he slammed onto the earth violently. I heard shrieking and hissing before there was silence. A moment later, the king arbok and sceptile appeared from underground, somehow surviving the attack. They were heavily breathing with sharp boulders laced inside of their bodies.

Both rose to their full height and they stood up against each other. The king arbok bared its fangs and the sceptile banged its blades against one another. One last attack, in a blink of an eye - they struck each other. The arbok dug its fangs into the sceptile's throat and the sceptile's blades the same into the arbok.

The wounds were fatal, and after a few minutes of them lying on the around motionless but still breathing, surprisingly so. Grabbing the gun from Lana, I walked over to the two and shot both of them between their eyes to relieve them of their misery.

I would torture all those who attempt to kill me or Lana and maybe everyone I was put in charge. I would never let the innocent or any stander-by to my cause suffer an excruciating death.

I glanced over to Kohana's battle, and realized that it was all but over as I focused on the battle between the two giants. Kohana's queen was all but ribbons of meat, and all he had was a cracked carapace and crushed wings. It would heal. The queen had collapsed onto the ground, squirming around and defeated. Instead of leaving his opponent to bleed to death, Kohana decapitated the queen.

The other queen lied still on the ground, barely noticeable due to the amount of needles riddled throughout it and the silk string lining. The swarm left as quick as it came. However, they were not without casualties, many bugs were scattered over the place with their guts splattered.

The only ones left standing in that ordeal was Dane and Igor. One was fighting for protection of the innocent travelers, and the other was fighting for his purpose. Both were going to die for each other's goals.

"Marshall... Take Kohana and get out of here!" Dane ordered, as he turned his attention from his opponent to me. "I can take-"

Igor took advantage of the brief distraction that I had caused, and he plunged his sharp claws through Dane's torso. "I want to get my death over with... Don't you?" Igor asked, nearly sympathetically.

"You bastard," Dane choked as he struggled to unsheathe his dagger. Shakily, he plunged the dagger in between Igor's scales near the heart area.

A dark reddish/purplish blood stained the steel, and Dane had pulled out the dagger, only for Igor to clench his own hand. Dane let out a scream of anguish, I would imagine that someone crushing my intestines in their hands would hurt intensely, and dropped the dagger on the ground. He dropped to one knee as Igor went down to his throat area with his fangs bared.

I noticed that Dane's hand was fishing for something in his pocket. Igor whispered into the maniac's ear, "Dane, kill me. Kill me now and everything will be all -"

Boom, headshot.

Dane had pulled out a small caliber handgun and shot the snake man under his chin, blowing his brains out in the process. Igor fell limp onto Dane, covering the maniac in blood. Dane attempted to push the motionless body off of him, instead he fell backwards.

"Marshall and Lana, come over here..." he weakly said."If you two are expecting me to ask you to fulfill my last dying wish or give you an inspiring speech to somehow redeem my death, well you aren't going to get one."

"What are you going to say?" asked Lana when we had jogged over to the fallen man.

"Two things," he responded rather quickly. "One, take care of yourself, take care of each other, and take care of Kohana... he is yours now, Marshall. Two, be wary of the helpful ones."


End file.
